After Dark
by Iemitsu-Sachi
Summary: During training, Sasuke gets bitten by a catlike demon, and is slowly going through changes that are both beneficial and bothersome. And to make things worse, his new demon side is reacting "inappropriately" to his blond teammate. SASUNARU.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: If I was Kishimoto-sensei, I would change the entire series and put more yaoi in it.

Warnings: Shounen-ai, yaoi, and my terrible writing style (with grammar mistakes YAY!).

Summary: When seperated during training, Sasuke was attacked by a strange cat-like demon. Now he finds himself courting his blond teammate, and he will do whatever it takes to have him as his mate.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke are 15-16 years old. They are chunin and still together in a team for some reason.

This is the first chapter for my first story and I probably already messed it up. Anyway don't bother reviewing if you don't like yaoi, Sasunaru, etc. If you don't like these types of stories, go back and don't waste my time with flames. That's all, enjoy!

"Talking"

_Thinking_

----------------------------

"Yare, yare…" the silver-haired jounin sighed. "All the morning training grounds are been used and occupied, so today we'll train in the forests at the outskirts of Konoha." Kakashi didn't leave much time to argue as he was already walking towards the exit of Konoha.

Sasuke couldn't keep the small fluttering of warmth spreading through him. It wasn't everyday that a missing nin was pardoned and it was even rare to let them out of the village without heavy security.

_Has it really been two months?_ Sasuke thought.

Only two months has passed since he was dragged back to Konoha by Naruto. It didn't feel like two months has passed since the hokage pardoned him and allowed him to come back. Of course on the first month of his arrival, he was followed by ANBU wherever he went. By the start of the second month, he was slowly trusted enough to do simple D-rank missions, with an occasional C- rank mission, alone. Although, just because he was left alone by the ANBU, it didn't mean he was entirely by himself. A certain loud mouthed blond idiot made sure to keep him company everywhere he went. Whether he was shopping for groceries, training, or even taking a small walk in the village, Naruto tagged along like a shadow. People in Konoha rarely saw one without the other and would often whisper to each other when they passed by, but as annoying as that sounded, Sasuke did not mind the Kyuubi container's company.

He had forgotten what it was like to feel the support from a friend during his three-year absence in Sound, but everything came back quickly as soon as the blond smiled radiantly at him. He could never comprehend why all the stress in his body caused by training would vanish as soon as he was in close range to the blond. Whenever the orange clad boy would smile at him, his stomach would flutter. At first, he thought that the feeling was cause by a stomach virus, but he was beginning to think that it was something else, since it simply faded when the blond was out of sight.

Also, just recently, he was accepted to join Team 7 once again. Sai gladly agreed to step back and let Sasuke have his place again in order to protect the special bonds between Sasuke and Naruto. He also made a remark that their bonds are probably more visible than Naruto's pe- that's all he had time to say before he was given a serious death glare from Naruto that even impressed Sasuke.

Both Sakura and Naruto showed that he was gladly accepted and welcomed back. Even Kakashi was happy to greet him every morning before burying his masked face on his precious book Even though he was back and people in Konoha were starting to trust him again, he still hasn't given up on his dream to pursue his brother and kill him.

"So Kakashi-sensei, what kind of training will we do today?" Naruto asked while trying to look calm and keep his excitement under control.

Kakashi regarded his students and smiled behind his mask.

"You will be practicing your tracking skills today." He answered cheerfully. He took out his kunai and cut his right thumb, quickly making the seals for the summoning jutsu. Once the smoke in the vicinity cleared, three pairs of eyes stared at 5 nin hounds that stared right back.

"Now listen carefully, my hounds are all carrying scrolls in their jaws." Kakashi motioned to the five dogs in total with a nod, and they quickly dispersed. "Your job is to find all the scrolls, retrieve them, and bring them back to me. You have the rest of the day to complete this mission. And remember, there is no need to hold back; I already talked to my hounds and told them to protect those scrolls no matter what. I will see you guys later." Kakashi turned and walked away.

"Wait! Where are you going Kakashi-sensei? Aren't you going to stay to watch over us?" Naruto yelled loudly at him.

"Nah, I can trust on you guys to do your job, besides I've got to get ready for a teachers' meeting tonight," Kakashi said and with one last wave to his students, he disappeared with a cloud of smoke.

_Teacher's meeting my ass. He probably has a date with Iruka-sensei, _Sasuke thought with an annoyed expression.

The three teens looked at each other, still processing and going over their task.

"That's it? That doesn't sound so hard," Sakura said, calmly pulling on her black gloves.

"I know, I was expecting something more challenging from Kakashi," Sasuke evenly said.

"Who cares if is not difficult? Let's do THIS!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

Five hours later, Sasuke was able to find two of the scrolls, but not before almost losing a limb by the nin hounds. Sakura also found one somewhere east from where he was. Thankfully, Kakashi had allowed them to use hidden earphones (1) to communicate with each other. He could only hope that Naruto was close of finding one of the two scrolls left; all he wanted to do was go home and rest.

Sasuke decided to take a short break under a shady tree and enjoy the last few minutes of sunlight before sunset. He closed his eyes to temporally rest them until he needed to use the Sharingan again. Unfortunately, his few seconds of repose were interrupted by a feminine voice in his ear.

"Sasuke-kun, have you found one of the last scrolls?" the pink-haired girl asked exhaustedly.

The Uchiha didn't even bother opening his eyes before responding, "No."

He could feel a headache coming on, and the pink-haired's voice was not helping. He took the phone off his ear and laid it next to him in the ground before Sakura could say something else. He sighed deeply; his body was finally able to relax. He leisurely drifted into a light sleep.

He was awakened by a cracking noise behind him. He sat up promptly, and activated the Sharingan. He could hear a low growl coming directly in front of him. The rustling of leaves and twigs was becoming louder, along with snarling and growling. Sasuke knew that whatever was making those noises couldn't be Pakkun or any of the other dogs. Judging from the loudness of each step it took, it was at least five times bigger than Pakkun.

His musings and thoughts were short lived when he was roughly tackled to the ground, hitting his head painfully with a thud. The creature snarled and swiped at him with its claws. Sasuke's eyes widened as he realized he was face to face with an animal with black fur. The creature resembled a feline. At first he thought it was a mountain lion, but he quickly dismissed the thought, mountain lions were usually cream colored and medium size.

Sasuke reached with one hand for his kusanagi that was given to him by Orochimaru, while keeping the creature form biting him with the other hand. He fiercely slashed the beast above the stomach with one move. The animal let out a pained growl, its tail swishing angrily. Finally, while the creature was distracted, Sasuke summoned the last of his chakra and forced it all over to create a shield with his Chidori Nagashi. The lighting stung the animal, but it was probably more startled than hurt. It finally retreated with an angry hiss, obviously starting to feel the numbness of the attack.

"What the hell was that?" Sasuke thought out loud, trying to control his breathing. He would have to deal with whatever it was later; right now, he was bleeding badly from the bite in his arm and a few scratches on his chest.

_I have to get these cleaned_.

He quickly but shakily stood up, panting heavily. He didn't think or care about the circumstances of leaving without finishing with the training. He just hoped that Naruto and Sakura found the last scrolls, as he made his way to the edge of the forest and entrance of Konoha.

The forest eventually opened to reveal the main path to Konoha's gate. He could clearly see Naruto and Sakura waiting for him with relieved faces as they saw him walking up towards them. Well actually only Sakura was giving him a look of relief. Naruto was trying to cover it by looking away, but you could tell that he was smiling. Sasuke tried to keep his usually cold passive face. But despite the numbing pain in his arm, he couldn't stop his eyes from softening for a few seconds at the dobe. He was running up to him eagerly almost tripping on the way but composed himself by the time he reached him.

"Sasuke! I found the last scrolls!" Naruto waved his arms back and forth excitedly, "what do you think about that?!"

Sasuke just smirked and ignored the last question.

"I'm glad this is over," Sakura said smiling at two boys.

Naruto turned and grinned at her. "Sakura-chan, I found the last scrolls!"

"I KNOW! I know! I heard you the twelfth time!" Sakura shouted at Naruto.

Naruto just continued grinning vivaciously; he was definitely catching up to Sasuke's capability, and everyone could just about see that.

"Sasuke-kun, why didn't you respond to us? We have been trying to contact you for a while now," Sakura smiled at Sasuke. She then noticed Sasuke's physical state. "Sasuke! You're injured, did Kakashi's dogs hurt you, come on we better get these wounds taken care of." Sakura got to work quickly on his cuts and bite marks, while Naruto just glared at him.

Sasuke's heart was wildly pounding in his ribcage at the sight of Naruto pouting. He suddenly realized how much chakra he used to get the beast to back off, since his legs were starting to feel too weak to support his weight or at least that's what he thought.

Sakura looked back and forth between her teammates who seem to be engaged in a staring contest. For some reason, ever since Sasuke came back from Sound, he and Naruto have been acting strange. Instead of fighting and trying to over achieve each other every single minute of the day, they now seem to be more interested in gaining each others attention or staring at each other.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a distant, yet loud growl in the forest. All three genins whirled around in the direction it came from; Sasuke immediately tensed. They had to get back inside Konoha before the creature that attacked him came back.

Sakura involuntarily shivered. "That didn't sound like any of Kakashi-sensei's nin dogs."

Sasuke gave her a look and clarified, "that's because it isn't, let's go now."

They quickly made their way back to the village with a heavy silence in the air. Everyone was so deep in their own thoughts that they didn't notice a pair of yellow glowing eyes watching them in the distance. The silence was too intense, not even the animals in the forest made a sound.

Naruto tried to lift up the mood by nervously chatting. "Once I go home, I'll make myself a hot, steamy, cup of miso ramen! Or may be I'll eat barbeque pork ramen! No, never mind, I'll eat that kind tomorrow."

Sasuke couldn't be any happier when they were safely inside the gates of Konoha. Whatever attacked was obviously very dangerous, and they were very lucky to make it into Konoha before it attacked again. He wondered if he should tell anyone about it. Whatever attacked couldn't have been simply any animal, it was obviously something to be cautious about, especially if it gets inside Konoha.

_Then it's settled, tomorrow I'll go and tell the Hokage about whatever the hell that was._

By now, the sun was already gone and the streets were mostly empty. Sakura bid her teammates good night before taking a different path to the suburbs where she lived. Sasuke and Naruto resolved on walking together since Naruto's apartment was nearby the Uchiha manor. (A/N: Well actually, I made that up)

Naruto threw Sasuke a glance from the corner of his eye, he looked paler than usual. His face was shining with a thin coat of sweat even if it was the beginning of autumn. He opened his mouth to voice out his concerns but stopped at the last minute with an angry huff.

_Why should I worry about an asshole like him anyway? He probably would make fun of me and call me an idiot. But he's my friend, and I can't help but care. No doubt he doesn't consider me his friend anymore, since I brought him back and made him stop his dream. Most likely he hates me for it too. _

For some reason that really made him depressed.

Naruto's unhappy thoughts went unnoticed by Sasuke. He was doing everything he could to not wince in pain. His entire right side was numb, and the injured arm was throbbing. The bite mark, which was now covered by bandages thanks to Sakura, was swelling and felt quite warm. He could feel a huge migraine coming; all he wanted to do now was go home and sleep.

Finally, Naruto pulled himself out of his small depressed state and walked in front of Sasuke, making him stop completely.

"Hey Sasuke, what's wrong with you? Are you alright?" He was only met by silence and prepared himself for the taunting that was sure to come.

Instead, Sasuke gave him a straight face that was usually directed to him when he said something stupid (Which is most of the time).

"Don't tell me you're worried about me, Usuratonkachi." Sasuke walked around the blond and carried on walking.

"Of course I'm worried! You're my best friend, and you might be a huge bastard who is obsessed with killing his brother, and left Konoha to seek power from a creepy snake guy, but you're still my best friend and you will always be," Naruto said in one breath.

Now, that made Sasuke stop his pace completely

_Always will be, huh?_

"I'm fine dobe, there's no need to worry about me. Go home and rest, tomorrow Kakashi is going to give us more hell with his stupid training," he gave the blond a small smile that was actually just a small quirk of lips, but to Naruto it was certainly an improvement.

"Alright then, see you tomorrow, Sasuke-teme!" he shouted making Sasuke wince.

As soon as Sasuke entered his house, he took his shoes off and headed to the bathroom. He prepared a warm bath and brought fresh bandages to replace the blood-soaked ones. He carefully took off his clothes and sank into the warm water. He scrubbed his body carefully to not upset his wounds anymore. After he was clean, he got out of the tub and dried himself. He put on the new bandages and a pair of black boxers. He headed to his bed pulled the covers over himself. Despite the room temperature being average, he was shaking and shivering.

_I probably forgot to close a window or something._

Suddenly, the dull pain from his arm spread all over his body, intensifying as it reached every muscle and nerve. Already his jaw was starting to ache from grinding his teeth to keep himself from crying out. He opened his eyes wide, trying to locate something to lessen his pain, but only saw blurry images. He regretted ordering Naruto to leave; as much as he hated admitting it, he really needed medical help. The last thing in his mind was Naruto's blue eyes looking at him cheerfully before he completely passed out, silently calling Naruto's name.

* * *

Was it just me or did the last sentence sound perverted? 

(1) I remember seeing Naruto wearing earphones somewhere around episode 20, but I wasn't sure how they are called.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: If I was Kishimoto-sensei, this anime wouldn't be in Shounen Jump.

Warnings: Shounen-ai, yaoi, and my terrible writing style (with more grammar mistakes YAY!). Oh, and there's a lot of ooc coming from everyone, so don't flame me cause I made everyone act weird, I'm not the only one out there that does that (kukukukuku). And don't bother to review just to tell me this story sucks, I already know that.

"Talking"

_Thinking_

* * *

When Sasuke woke up, he realized three things. One, he was tangled up on the floor with his bed sheets. Two, he could not remember what he did the day before that would give him the worst migraine ever. And last thing he noticed was that the birds outside his window were remarkably loud this morning. It almost felt like they were chirping and singing inside his room... or his head. Drowsily, Sasuke buried his head on the soft sheets to muffle out the loud high pitched sounds. 

He groaned. "The sun is not even out yet."

Indeed, he noticed that his room was still dark, but that couldn't possibly be true because he could see everything in the room quite clearly. Wait. He blinked and blinked again, the grogginess was finally fading. Yes, he was definitely not misled. He could clearly see the shapes of his dresser and nightstand next to him. Some of his clothes lay wrinkled on the floor, and his closet was semi-opened.

He sat up and winced. He looked at his right arm and came face to face with nasty looking puncture wounds. The gaps were already healing, but they were still visible. Around the lesions, the muscle was sore and a little swollen, with a bit of scarlet coloring around it.

_What exactly happened yesterday?_

He thought back and tried to come up with a reason of why he nearly died the day before. But no matter how much he tried, he could not remember anything except him being in terrible pain, especially from his arm. It was probably a 24-hour flu; those always caused terrible body aches. He winced; all these thoughts were just making his migraine worse. He shrugged at his short amnesia and decided to forget about it.

But now that he felt much better, he should go and see Tsunade. He scoffed. Scratch that, he never felt better.

He got dressed quickly and got ready to meet the rest of Team 7 for training. He went downstairs to prepare himself a light breakfast; he wasn't very hungry this morning. A piece of toast and juice would be enough. Once he was done he took the dishes to the sink and left them there to wash later. He put on his shoes and stepped out of his house not bothering to lock the door behind him.

He knew no one would dare to come near the Uchiha Compound, much less his house. In fact the only ones who have ever come inside the compound were Kakashi and Naruto; he felt the familiar tickling sensation in his stomach at the thought of the blond. When he was accepted back and trusted to be alone without ANBU, Naruto took the job of following him. He even went inside the compound, throwing saddened glances at the empty stores and houses, and following him to the door of his house. The blonde made sure Sasuke went inside the house and even stayed a few minutes more to make sure the pale skinned boy did not leave the house. The ritual was repeated every night even in rainy days. The idiot would still wait outside, refusing the invitations to come in and get dry.

His thoughts were interrupted by the smell of wild flowers growing a few places in the compound. He could also smell the rich earthy essence of the rocky soil and grass. The smell of water was in the air as well.

_It's probably going to rain soon._

As he got nearer and nearer to the entrance and exit of the compound he heard the noise of the village and its people. That was a little strange since he was still a quite far away. When he arrived at the village the smells and sounds completely overwhelmed him. He never really truly paid any attention to anything like that before, but the intensity of the sounds and fragrances was too big to ignore. It was like he was seen the village for the first time. There was a slight aroma of yeast and flour coming from bakeries, and plenty of tapping sounds of steps when people walked by. There was so many voices all talking at once, some soothing and polite, and others were more energetic and outgoing. Dogs barked out in the distance making Sasuke tense a bit, but the light swooshing sound of leaves of the trees moving in the wind calmed him up. As a wind current passed by, Sasuke's eyes widened at all the new scents he could distinguish.

_This is very strange._

He arrived at their meeting place after a while. He walked a little faster, unconsciously eager to see his teammates (Well actually just Naruto).

He was surprised to see his teammates already there waiting for him. Even Kakashi was there, reading his precious book. Sasuke was usually the first one to arrive, but guessing by the bored look of his teammates, he was late by a few minutes.

Sakura saw him first and waved happily at him. "Good morning Sasuke-kun, how are you today?"

He did not respond directly, he only gave her a nod of acknowledgment and fixed a glance at Naruto, who snapped out of his thoughts to face his rival.

Sasuke never noticed until now how his golden hair gleamed and eyes sparkled in the sunlight and even better, the blonde's eyes were open wide, giving him an innocent yet teasing look. He could feel his playful, mischievous aura, and high chakra coming from him in waves along with a sweet smell. Unconsciously, he smirked in approval.

Meanwhile, Naruto was starting to feel uncomfortable from the intense stare that Sasuke was giving him. It almost felt like he was been inspected inside and out.

He tried not to let his nervousness show in his voice. "What the hell are you staring at?" His frown only grew when Sasuke's smirk widened.

_He's perfect_, Sasuke thought.

Naruto gulped and glared as the other boy continued to intensely look at him. While these two were in their own little world, the other two ninja watched them curiously. Sakura was a bit taken back by the small insignificant greeting Sasuke gave her and the heated glance he is _still _giving Naruto. Kakashi watched them over his book with bewilderment all over his face.

_What the hell is he doing?_ Naruto thought nerviously. He could feel his face warming and heart speeding up.

Thankfully, Kakashi decided to intervene with the dramatic reunion and get something done before the day was over.

"Alright, since we are all here, we might as well get started," the white-haired Jounin said as he put away his book.

Sasuke turned away from his staring to look at their teacher. Naruto gave a sigh of relief. If it weren't for the fact that he wasn't the brightest person, he would have noticed something was amiss with Sasuke.

"As I said yesterday, most of the training grounds are been used because of the lack of missions, so there is a chance we might have to share with other teams."

The students followed their teacher to one of the training grounds and just like Kakashi predicted, another team was sparring there to the dismay of his students.

_Oh great, now we have to train with another team. Could this get any worse?_ Naruto thought in disappointment.

_We better not share a training ground with Ino-pig! _Sakura cried out in her thoughts.

"Good morning Kakashi!" A flash of green rushed over to them. The three students along with their teacher inwardly groaned.

_Of all teams, it just had to be this one_, they thought.

"It is so great to see you and your students full of youth this beautiful morning. Will you do us the great honor of joining us for training?" Gai- sensei only received blank stares from Team 7 and before Kakashi could answer, a thumb was thrust 5 centimeters from his face. "Wonderful! This morning can only get better if we all run 100 laps around the training grounds together while sharing fascinating stories about our youth-"

"Thanks Gai, but may be another time." Kakashi motioned towards his alarmed looking students.

"Sakura, you go and train with the girl with the weird hair." Sakura rolled her eyes at her teacher's lack of interest of knowing other ninja's names and headed to where Tenten was throwing a few shuriken at a target. They will must likely forget about training, relax, and share the latest news of gossip instead. Naruto almost wished he was a girl, so he could join them.

_Man, I just want to take the day off. A cold shower would be great on this humid day, _Naruto thought. Unknowingly to him, Sasuke was thinking the same thing, but for completely different reasons.

"I want to fight with Sasuke-san!" Rock Lee gleefully shouted, without even consulting Sasuke.

Naruto sighed. "Well, I guess I'm stuck with Neji." He followed the white-eyed teen farther down the training grounds, really wishing he had stayed at home and slept longer.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he watched Naruto follow Neji to a clearing father off. He almost growled, but then Lee laid a hand on his shoulder.

_What is wrong with me? First, I woke up with overactive senses, and now I almost attacked Neji,_ Sasuke argued with himself, ignoring Lee, who was now staring owlishly at him.

"Sasuke-san are you not felling well, my friend?"

"I'm fine, let's begin." He walked to an empty space big enough to give them room, but small enough to keep in close contact. After all, Lee could only do taijutsu.

Lee struck his famous pose and charged at Sasuke, who dodged and blocked all his kicks and punches. He slightly wondered if Lee was holding back, his attacks were much slower than he remembered. He assumed that the boy in the spandex was just warming up.

A few minutes passed and Sasuke was starting to get annoyed. Lee was still pretty slow; he was actually getting slower by the minute.

"Sasuke-san. You really are bored aren't you?" Lee panted, trying to catch his breath.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Lee smiled politely, his teeth momentarily blinding the raven. "You're so bored, you're not even using the Sharingan, yet you haven't even stopped the fight. You must really care if you're willing to put aside your disinterest to help a friend to get better! You are really a great guy Sasuke-san!" By now Lee was on his knees trying not to burst into manly tears of joy. Sasuke just ignored the whole situation, and stayed quiet.

_He's entirely out of chakra, _Sasuke thought. He was a little disappointed that he was able to defeat him without even lifting a finger. This was probably one of the easiest battles he has ever had.

After the awkward moment, they both headed to where Neji and Naruto were still sparring while being watched by Gai and Kakashi.

Kakashi looked over at Sasuke and Lee in surprise

_Are they finished already? Sasuke doesn't look beat up, but Lee seems to be exhausted, so that means Sasuke won. But just a few years ago, he lost a duel against Lee before the Chuunin Exams. Just how strong did Sasuke get over the years while he was away?_

He came out of his musings and turned his attention back to Naruto and Neji.

Neji brushed a strand of hair behind his ear and concentrated. He would have to use Gentle Fist on his opponent and finish this quickly. They were both tired but refused to give up just yet. He focused his chakra in to his palms and charged. Unfortunately, he's plan backfired.

Everyone including Sakura and Tenten who were sitting close by stared in shock. Gai's jaw hanged open. Naruto stared dumbly in front of him as Neji was thrown back a few feet from where he was and landed harshly. But everyone's attention wasn't on Neji, it was on Sasuke. He stood in front of Naruto angrily staring at the fallen boy. He was completely surrounded by strange dark chakra that seemed to be practically growling, hissing, and moving on its own. But just as quickly as it appeared, it dimished until just a thin layer of it surrounded the frame of the Uchiha.

Naruto's eyes half lidded, that chakra surrounding Sasuke felt both creepy and comforting at the same time. It almost felt like he was being soothed and welcomed in a nice warm place. Something stirred inside of him and quickly realized it was the fox, it seemed like it was purring. He quickly shook out of his thoughts, and glared irritably at the boy in front of him.

"Sasuke, what did you do bastard?!" He rushed over to Neji, who everyone seemed to forgotten about, and helped him stand. Sakura rushed over as well just to make sure he wasn't injured.

Sasuke glared at the temporarily dazed long-haired teen. "He was going to use the Gentle Fist on you, that technique should not be used in a simple spar, especially in one where the opponent doesn't know a thing about how chakra can damage organs seriously."

Well actually that was a complete lie. He was sure Naruto knew plenty of the Gentle Fist; he fought Neji before after all. He interceded the fight for a very stupid reason now that he thought about it. When he saw Neji charging at an unsuspecting Naruto, he had the sudden urge to protect the blonde from both serious danger of the Hyuuga's master technique style and from being touched by another guy.

Sasuke turned to look at Kakashi and noticed that the white-haired Jounin was in deep in thought. He inwardly groaned, he would most likely get a scolding and a long talk later on.

Sakura quickly finished looking over Neji. "It looks like he is okay, but I'm not really sure if he has any internal damage. It would probably be best if Tsunade-sama checks him over just in case."

Gai didn't waste a second before rushing over to his student. "My dear youthful pupil! It is my duty as your teacher to make sure you don't aggravate those injuries, so I'll be the one who carries you to see the Hokage! Hop on my back! "

Lee sniffed. "Gai-Sensei! It is so great to see how much you care about us! Your enthusiasm to help us expand our youth is very touching and moving! If only everyone could do the same, then everyone would be living in harmony sharing their youthfulness with everyone!"

Gai somehow forgot about his hurt student. "Well said Lee! I'm so proud of you! You will make it far into the horizon by spreading the knowledge of youth!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

Everyone watched very disturbingly as teacher and student hugged. After the very creepy moment, they all got ready to leave. Neji of course refused the help much to his teacher's disappointment and walked stiffly to the Hokage Tower.

Loud knocks woke the leader of the village from her deep slumber and quickly Tsunade placed a few papers on her desk to make it look like she was doing paper work.

"Come in!" She also made sure to keep the sleepiness from showing in her voice.

She was definitely more awake when Naruto, Sasuke, Lee, Sakura, Tenten, and a limping Neji supported by Gai and Kakashi dashed into her office all with worried expressions on their faces, except may be Sasuke and Kakashi.

"What do you all want? Can't you see that I'm busy?" She ignored the disbelieving faces.

Sakura bowed and smiled at her teacher. "Sorry to interrupt Lady Tsunade, but could you take a look at Neji-sama and give him a medical examination, please? I think he is internally injured since he coughed up a bit of blood," she explained. "I tired to heal some of the damage, but there's almost nothing I can do to his organs due to the master style of the Hyuuga clan."

Tsunade raised a thin golden eyebrow. "You're telling me he was hit by Hinata or one of the Hyuugas with the Gentle Fist?"

Sakura swallowed and threw a nervous glace at Sasuke who lost interest a while ago. He settled on staring at Naruto. Naruto stared right back at Sasuke quietly deep in thought, almost like he was having a mental debate with himself.

"Well, you see Lady Tsunade, Neji's attack was reflected back at him when he tried to attack Naruto, by a huge chakra barrier," Tenten answered. Nobody knew if they should let Tsunade know about Sasuke's interruption.

Tsunade sighed. _That blond idiot should really learn to control the fox's chakra better._

She got her supplies ready and told Neji to follow her to the next room. Sakura followed eagerly, wanting to know more about the destructive damage of the Hyuuga's fighting style and how to heal it. Kakashi and Gai helped Neji walk to the room. Of course, Gai was crying in distress, while Kakashi wished he was somewhere else reading his book. Neji just rolled his eyes and gave Gai a small smile but made no move to comfort his bawling teacher. A soon as they entered the examination room, Lee and Tenten decided to join them as well to avoid the thick silence with Naruto and Sasuke.

Meanwhile, Naruto was - surprisingly- deep in thought. He wondered why exactly Sasuke jumped over to protect him. Is not like he hasn't been hurt by the Hyuuga teen before, but then again Sasuke was right, that technique should only be used in serious combat, not in friendly training. But what happened to that strange black chakra that surrounded Sasuke before? It was like Sasuke's chakra was moving and acting like the fox's chakra. Damn, he felt a headache coming. He should really stop thinking so much. To make matters worse, Sasuke was still staring at him, but not exactly at him.

_Arg! What is wrong with him? _He yelled in his mind.

He felt the familiar rumble of the fox moving in its cage.

_The Uchiha boy feels different!_ He heard the fox say from the depths of his cage.

_What are you talking about, he's seems the same to me. But he has been acting strange today,_ Naruto talked back. _And what the hell was with the purring a while back, it almost sounded like you were surrounding by catnip and other things that cats like._

_You're such an idiot human, _the foxretorted.

"Shut up!" Naruto said out loud, much to his embarrassment.

"Dobe, I didn't say anything," Sasuke gave him a strange look.

"Ummm…"

Sasuke leaned closer until Naruto had to lean back to get his personal space again. "You're acting weird, Usuratonkachi."

Naruto's eye twitched. _I'm acting weird?! You're the one that has been staring at me all day and threw Neji several feet back with some strange chakra and goes back staring at me again_. He wanted to say that, but the closeness between them minimized as Sasuke leaned closer to him.

"What? I'm not acting weird. I have to go now!" He chuckled nervously and sprinted out of the room, and out of the building.

He was afraid that Sasuke was following so he didn't stop running until he crashed into a hard body.

"Hey! Watch were you're- oh Sai, what's up?" He grinned then checked behind to see if Sasuke followed him. _Nope, I'm good!_

"Ah, hello there Dickless, I'm good and you?" Sai gave him a small wave and a fake smile.

Naruto twitched. "That's not how you greet people Sai!"

Sai didn't seem to hear him. "Have you and Sasuke-kun finished repairing you bonds yet? Or have you decided to skip that and go straight to the bedroom?" he asked innocently, which just seemed to aggravate Naruto more and made a few people turned to look at them.

"Sai! Sasuke and I are not like that!" He whispered to the pale boy, looking around to see if anybody heard them.

Another fake smile. "Okay, sure…" Sai didn't really show any signs that he heard Naruto at all.

"Sai!" the blond shouted, attracting more people's attention.

* * *

Sasuke was getting ready for bed when he heard loud knocks on his door. He rolled his eyes and scornfully wondered who it could possibly be. 

"Bastard! Open the door and let me in! It's pouring outside!"

Sasuke opened the door to reveal a very wet Naruto. He was completely soaked from head to toe. His golden hair was dripping and sticking on his face and headband. His jacket and pants had so much accumulated water, that small puddles were created under him. His sandals were covered in mud, along with his feet. But somehow, even though he was obviously very wet and cold, he still had a smile on his face and his eyes glowed brightly.

Sasuke frowned at the dirty condition the blond boy was in. He hesitated on whether to let him in or not; he didn't want his clean floor to get muddy and wet. Finally, with an exasperated sigh, he let him in.

"What are you doing here, dobe?" he went to get some towels from the kitchen for the other boy.

"I came to see you 'cause you have been definitely been acting strange today. So I came to ask you what's up?" the whiskered boy happily accepted the towels before taking off his wet orange and black jacket.

Sasuke watched him undress quietly. "Nothing is wrong, dobe. There is no need to come over and tell me something like that." He licked his lips; the blond was now taking off his shirt and using a towel to dry himself. If he doesn't leave in less than ten seconds, he's going to seriously jump the blond.

"Why are you staring at me like that, Sasuke?!"

_10…_

Naruto gave him a look. "What's wrong?"

9…

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

8…

"Are you mad at me for coming to see you?"

7…

"Or are you mad because I ruined your floors?"

6…

"You know, I'll help you clean them if you want."

5…

"Damn it! Answer me!"

4…

"If I'm bothering you-"

3…

"Than I can just leave-"

2…

"and never bother to worry about you again, you-"

1…

"insensitive bastard!"

_Oops, time's up._

"You're such a cold, selfish, prick head that doesn't care about any one other than him-" Naruto's babbling was cut off when Sasuke roughly kissed him. He refused to acknowledge the feeling of blood rush in his face and the way his heart fluttered as a tongue traced his bottom lip. He gasped and felt the other boy's tongue inside his mouth. Meanwhile, Sasuke was in heaven as he explored the nice, hot, wet, mouth of the blonde. To his complete surprise and delight, the smaller boy started to respond to his advances. A tongue shyly mingled with his own causing moans from both teens. The kiss became more heated and rushed as hands moved quickly to free each other from their clothes.

-

Sasuke woke up from his dream sweating and with a very noticeable problem in his pants. He remembered the dream he just had and actually purred at the thought of the orange-clad boy.

He decided to pay a nightly visit, since he obviously couldn't sleep. The only way to calm his hunger is to find him.

Sasuke didn't bother using the house's front door; instead he threw open his window and jumped out. He landed on another house's roof next to his and ran towards the blonde's apartment. For some reason, he felt more comfortable by running in all fours trying to locate Naruto's fox scent.

When he finally located the scent, he happily mewled uncharacteristically and sprinted towards Naruto's apartment. His eyes narrowed like those of a cat, making it easier to see in the dark.

He jumped on the boy's balcony, his scent completely dominating his senses, and quietly tried to open the sliding glass door. To his dismay, he found out it was locked.

So instead he settled by just watching through the window. Naruto's bedroom was a lot smaller than his, making it very simple to locate him. Only a small dresser and a bed occupied the room, along with the sleeping boy of course. He was lying on his stomach, spread all over his bed, probably dreaming about all kinds of ramen, since he was drooling on his pillow. His small snores could be heard by Sasuke's acute ears, and he could see every twitch his body made.

Sasuke sat near the wall and purred in content, happily watching the blond boy sleep.

* * *

A/N: Oooh, Sasuke doesn't seem to remember been attacked by an evil demon! I wonder what problems this will cause. 

I appreciate people reading my first fic and giving criticism to improve. So please, if you like my story please review. Thank you! I love you all!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: If I owned the series Naruto, he and Sasuke would be reproducing like bunnies with Uchiha babies, and I would also get rid of Karin!

Warnings: Shounen-ai, yaoi, and my terrible grammar and writing style. And ooc-ness.

"Talking"

_Thinking_

* * *

Sasuke groaned. For some reason, he felt like he was just strapped to a horse and dragged through the entire village. His body was sore and his muscles were cramped. The tenseness had his entire body frozen in one position, and the pain hardly allowed him to move.

The raven-haired didn't bother opening his eyes; he wanted to catch up with a few more hours of sleep before he needed to get ready to meet Naruto and Sakura at the bridge.

The Uchiha rolled over on his side and tried to get comfortable in the covers, except there was a _slight_ problem. The mattress felt solid, jagged, and incredibly uncomfortable. There was also the fact that could feel a breeze touching his entire body, and he couldn't feel his bed sheets anywhere.

The brunet finally opened his eyes groggily. He blinked quickly to try to get used to the blinding sunlight, but immediately tensed when he saw the blue sky above him instead of his white ceiling.

Sasuke sat up in alarm.

_Where the hell am I?!_

A good look around told him he was on top of a roof of a house, and according to the Uchiwa logo near the house entrance, it was his own house. He had actually slept outside on the top of his roof.

The sun was already up, and shining brightly upon the Uchiha Compound, giving it a more welcoming feeling to the vacant place.

_I guess that explains why I had an uncomfortable night, and also why I felt a breeze, but how did I get up here? I could've sworn I fell asleep on my bed._

Sasuke stood up shakily and climbed inside the house through his bedroom's window.

_The doors are all locked up; the only way I could've gotten out was if I climbed out of the window. But how did this happen?_

The brunet was still wearing the same black cotton pants he wore to bed. However, he seemed to have discarded off his white sleeveless shirt he had on somewhere.

Once he was inside his house, he changed into his normal clothes and went downstairs to prepare himself some breakfast. He walked into the kitchen and subconsciously took a carton of milk out of the refrigerator and gulped it down in seconds. He was nearly done with the newly bought milk when he realized what he was doing.

_Wait, since when do I drink milk? And out of the carton much less? _

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and put the nearly empty cardboard box back into the refrigerator. Coal eyes roamed through to see what he could cook up. Eyes approvingly landed on a tray of salmon.

_Yes, this will definitely do._

After the nice albeit extremely long breakfast, which pretty much consisted of salmon and the rest of the milk that he hadn't finish already, he was now satisfied.

The ebony-haired teen cleared the dirty dishes and left his house to meet up with his teammates.

The fact that he had woken up on top of his roof half naked was still floating around his head.

He couldn't have been sleepwalking; he never had a problem like that before when he was younger.

He walked towards the meeting place deep in thought.

_Tch, Uchihas don't sleepwalk._

He sneered, and decided to leave it at that.

* * *

Despite the day being a cool winter morning, Naruto woke up surprisingly warm and well rested. He had this warm, tingly, feeling all over his body the entire night; it felt strange but familiar, and he welcomed it happily during his sleep. It felt like he was completely safe and secure, it even chased away the nightmares he usually has. But now that it was morning, the feeling was no longer there, only small traces still lingered in the vicinity of his room. He couldn't shake the idea that he had felt this feeling before, but he just couldn't place his finger on it.

_Well, what ever it was, I hope it comes back again tonight._ He thought.

He yawned and stretched his arms. _I guess I better get ready now or else I'll never make it on time before Kakashi-sensei… Wait! Who am I kidding? Of course I'll make it before that perverted Jounin!_

The blonde made his way to the bathroom to take a shower and brush his teeth. Once he was clean, he made himself ramen for breakfast and left his apartment quickly. _I am going to kick Sasuke's ass for acting so strange yesterday and not telling me what is wrong with him! If he's planning on leaving again or something crazy, I'll personally will strangle him and lock him a tower!_

He ran quickly to find Sakura and Sasuke waiting for him on top of the bridge. Apparently their teacher hasn't arrived yet, much to Naruto's 'surprise'…

Naruto waved cheerfully at his teammates as he ran to meet them.

"Oi, guys!" he shouted enthusiastically at the two other ninja.

Sakura noticed him and waved back. "Hey, Naruto!"

Sasuke just smirked and turned his head away to hide a small blush.

_What is wrong with me? _The black-haired boy questioned himself. It took a lot of self control to force the fluttering in his stomach down. Sharingan user wasn't an idiot; he already knew what these emotions meant. But just because he felt like that, it didn't mean he would act on it, he knew Naruto wouldn't feel the same, especially because he had a crush on the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Hey Sakura-chan! How are you toda-"Naruto paused in mid-greeting.

That warm and tingly fluttering from this morning was back again. It was faint but it was there, his blue eyes half-lidded as he was started to feel hazy. Again, he began to feel relaxed and forgot what he was going to say.

_Where is it coming from?_ He wondered.

The only people that was there was himself, Sakura, and Sasuke. So that means it must be coming from one of them.

The Kyuubi container staggered over to a confused and worried Sakura.

_What is that feeling? It seems like it's getting stronger, but it's not coming from Sakura… So, could it come from Sasu-_

Hazed blue eyes turned to make eye contact with angry charcoal eyes.

Before he could really look at Sasuke, the tingly chakra dispersed and disappeared, only to be replaced with confusion.

"Naruto, what's wrong with you? Why are you so quiet?" the pink-haired kunouichi asked, "and why are you staring at Sasuke-kun like that?!"

That snapped Naruto back from the foggy state he was in. He blushed in embarrassment when he realized that his teammates were giving him strange looks.

"Well, ugh…you see… I-" The blonde laughed nervously when Sakura's eyes dangerously narrowed at him and when Sasuke stared at him intently, both expecting a good answer.

"Well? We're waiting, Dobe"

The blonde only starched his scarred cheek and stared at a fascinating grey rock on the ground.

Thankfully, the awkward moment was interrupted by the arrival of Kakashi.

"Good morning!" he said even though it was a few minutes past noon.

"YOU'RE LATE AGAIN KAKASHI-SENSEI!!" Naruto yelled at him, inwardly happy for the interruption.

"Oh, sorry. I was walking by when I saw some children harassing a turtle that wandered too far from the river, so I decided to help it."

Sakura and Naruto rolled their eyes. Their teacher's excuses were getting lamer and lamer. Sasuke on the other hand, was still wondering what made Naruto react so strange.

The blonde felt eyes staring at the back of his head.

_Here we go with the staring again._ Naruto thought, rolling his eyes.

Kakashi finally spoke again. "We'll be sparring today. So for now, Naruto, you and Sasuke will be sparring together, and I'll be training with Sakura."

"Why can't I spar with Sakura-chan and you spar with Sasuke-teme?" the blonde whined.

"Because Naruto, you and Sasuke are evenly matched, and I need to give Sakura a few pointers on taijutsu."

The blonde grunted but did as he was told and strolled over father off in the training grounds to give each other some space. Sasuke just followed, silently frowning.

_What's wrong with the Dobe today? First he stares at me strangely, then he denies it, then he starts avoiding me again! What the hell did I do?_

The boys wasted no time and faced each other in their fighting positions. This will be the first time they would spar with each other since Sasuke was dragged back to Konoha. And even though they both looked calmed and composed on the outside, they were both eager and excited to fight again.

Naruto charged first, throwing a fist to the raven-haired nin, who dodged it easily. Sasuke took the opportunity to hit him in the stomach, throwing the blonde a couple of feet back. He landed rigorously on the ground, covering himself with dirt.

Once the blonde got to his feet and his breath back, he made a few hand seals.

"Taijuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted. Then, 20 more Narutos appeared and surrounded Sasuke, charging at him with punches and kicks.

Sasuke smirked. _This is too easy._ He made a few seals as well.

"Katon: Gokakyuu no Jutsu!"

The huge ball of fire eliminated half of the copies, the rest were quickly rid off with his Kusanagi.

Naruto, mentally smirked, _Sasuke-bastard is going further into my trap._

He grabbed a kunai from his pouch, and sneaked quickly but quietly and charged at Sasuke.

"Dobe, that's not going to work, I can hear you coming a mile away." He side-stepped him, making Naruto hit a tree instead and falling to the ground face first.

The fact that Naruto landed on the earth with his butt on the air brought Sasuke peculiar thoughts.

Charcoal eyes focused from Naruto's back down to his round ass and watched as the orange-clad boy tried to regain his balance, his eyes never leaving his back side.

Against his self control, blood started pooling in his nether regions. He could only imagine how it would feel like to thrust inside that tight, hot ass. Naruto would be on his hands and knees, moaning and gasping for breath as he released deep inside of him.

_Damn! This can't be happening right now! _Sasuke tried his best to compose himself and brought different thoughts to himself that would help him get rid of his almost visible problem.

_Damn! This isn't working!_ Sasuke began to loose control.

Meanwhile, Naruto finally composed himself and thought of other ways to bring the Uchiha down.

"Alright, you might have caught me there, but I'm not going to lose to you yet! I'm gonna take care of that big head of yours with my own hands, datte bayo!!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke chuckled._ I would rather if you took another big head in your hands. _He thought, the last of his self control breaking.

But before Naruto could put his, genius, super, cool plan into action, he was tackled unexpectedly and once again landed on the ground on his back.

_How did he move so fast? He was like at the other edge of the training grounds a few seconds ago._

Naruto then realized how close their faces were.

"Teme! Get off of me!"

Sasuke smirked and instead of complying, he straddled the blonde's hips. Blue eyes widened and let out a surprised gasp when he felt something hard pressing on his stomach.

"Sasuke, wha-"

The Uchiha got even closer and used his right hand to grab Naruto's hands and put them above his head while his left hand cupped the younger boy's face. Deep, husky, purrs rumbled from his throat as he nuzzled the blonde's scarred cheek and neck.

_Wait! What the hell?! I- is he p-purring?!_

By now the blue eyed boy was too shocked to do anything but lay still. The brunet mistook that as acceptance and begun to grind their groins together in a slow rhythm.

"Sa- Sasuke! Stop it! Stop!" the blonde moaned and closed his eyes. The purring next to his ear grew louder at the sounds the spiky haired boy was making. Naruto knew he should push the other teen off and punch the shit out of him, but the purring that the other boy emitted was calming and reassuring. He almost felt like purring back, if he could that is. His heart began to quicken, and he could feel a burning sensation every time the raven-haired trusted into his own hardening member.

The rocking grew into a faster pace. Both were panting and a thin layer of seat coated their bodies and faces. Naruto finally gained enough courage to thrust back into the boy on top of him, eliciting moans from both of them. Sasuke released the blonde's hands and gripped his waist for better support, helping him thrust harder. Naruto moaned louder and wrapped his own arms around the brunet.

"Sa- Sasuke!" The whiskered boy closed his eyes when the brunet's hands slipped under his orange jacket and stroked his soft tanned abdomen.

"Naruto! Sasuke-kun!" a female voice echoed through the forests.

_Damn, Kakashi-sensei and Sakura are finished already? That Jounin must be getting lazier every day! _Sasuke assumed.

_Oh no! They can't see us like this! They're going to freak! _Naruto panicked and realized that if they didn't do something, they will be seen in this state.

He mustered the last of his strength to push the raven off of him, who landed on his back with a grunt, completely ruining the mood.

Sakura and Kakashi found the two boys sitting on the ground. Sasuke was frowning and glaring at Kakashi and Sakura for interrupting, while Naruto was blushing madly and trying to cover up the lower half of his body. Both boys were panting and sweating, nevertheless, Sakura and Kakashi thought it was caused by the fight.

"Well, guessing by the looks of your faces, I'll say you're done with your training. And since I don't feel like teaching you guys anything new today, we might as well end our class for now. However, I suppose I should tell you about our next mission, before you guys sprint away from me. We're going to the Lighting Country to protect a rich innkeeper from a couple of dangerous robbers trying to kill him and steal his fortune. While we watch over him and his property, he agreed to let us stay in his inn until the mission is over. I suggest you pack lightly since it's a long trip, so go on and rest. We'll leave tomorrow early," Kakashi explained. "Now then, I have to go and meet a cute little dolphin, so you can all go home." Kakashi smiled and with that said, he disappeared with a poof of smoke.

_Oh man! This is going to be bad!_ Naruto's shoulders dropped. After what just happened between them, he didn't think he was ready to forget it and pretend it didn't happen.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was thinking something different. _What in the world came over me to do that?! He's probably disturbed because of that now. But there's no way I can avoid it now._

Before anyone could say anything, Naruto plastered a smile. "I have to go now, so I can start packing. Bye Sakura-chan!" he avoided the other boy completely and refused to meet his gaze.

Sakura returned the smile but couldn't help but be confused as she noticed Sasuke stare at the golden-haired teen's back; a few emotions swirled in his coal eyes before the black fire disintegrated and became ice cold again.

* * *

The sun was already gone by the time Naruto reached his apartment. The whiskered boy took the long way home just so he could think about what had happened this morning. Sasuke was his best friend. That bastard was very important to him, and he cared for him deeply. He risked his life more than once to bring him back to the village, and even before he left to Orochimaru, he was one of the few people in Konoha that he could relate to. Yet he still wasn't sure what to think.

Naruto was thinking so deeply he didn't notice that his legs brought him back to his apartment. Hands reached into his pocket to take out his keys and open the door.

Once he was inside and had taken off his shoes, he forced himself to concentrate on his task of packing for the mission. Going through his room, the blonde took all the essential things he would need.

"Let's see, I already packed a few sets of clothes, my toothbrush, my pajamas, and all my weapons. Am I missing anything else? Perhaps I should bring some-" he was interrupted by a few knocks on his door.

"Eh? Who could that be this late?" he unlocked the locks and opened the door.

"Sakura-chan? What are you doing here?" he moved out of the way to let her in.

The pink-haired kunoichi muttered a soft 'thanks' and made her way in.

"Naruto did you and Sasuke have a fight this morning? I mean, other than the sparring?"

"Ehh? No, why?" he motioned for her to sit on a chair, which she politely refused.

She took a deep breath. "You guys were acting strange when Kakashi-sensei and I were done with our training. So I wanted to talk to Sasuke-kun after you left, but he was already gone as well. I decided to go over to talk to him, but when I knocked on his door, he didn't answer. I don't think he was asleep, and he's not the type of person to go out to eat this late at night either. So I came over here to ask you if you've seen him and if you guys had a fight."

Naruto smiled. "Don't worry Sakura-chan, that bastard was probably taking a shower or something, that's why he didn't answer the door! Anyways, Sasuke and I didn't have a fight. So you can stop worrying yourself about that. Changing the subject though, I'm really excited about tomorrow's mission. I've never been to the Land of Lighting! Do you think the hotel we are staying at has hot springs? Wait! We probably won't be able to have fun will we? We are going to be too busy to relax at the inn," Naruto rambled. He went from excited to puzzled and sad and back to happy again.

Sakura smiled. The blonde's excitement was contagious, she kind of felt excited too. This is also her first time going to the Lighting Country, and truthfully she was a little nervous as well. Besides, this will be the first mission Team Seven would do together since Sasuke came back, that made it more special for her. And she knew it would be just as special for her teammates as well. It would be just like when they were younger. Sakura almost forgot about her previous worries thanks to a little walk on the Memory Lane.

She giggled at the funny memories and gave a grinning Naruto a hug, which he returned softly. "You're right! I don't know why I was so worried; Sasuke-kun was probably busy packing or something."

Naruto flashed her a mischievous grin. "Or maybe he was in the bathroom jacking off while thinki- Ow! Sakura-chaan, that really hurt!"

Sakura twitched. "Sasuke-kun is not as perverted as you! And what exactly would he be thinking about anyway?"

Naruto gulped. Shit! He had have almost forgotten about what happened this morning.

"Um, h-how the hell should I know? Is not like the bastard talks to me about these things!"

"_**Yes, because he would rather do these things to you, wouldn't he," **_the fox added, but Naruto pretended he didn't hear it.

Sakura hummed. "You know, this would be the second time we would stay at a fancy inn because of a mission. The first time was when we trying to see Kakashi-sensei's face."

Blue eyes warmed at the memories. "Yeah, I remember."

The happy moment was cut of short by a loud hiss coming from outside.

"Naruto, did you hear that?"

"Huh? It's probably some cats fighting for food. It's really common around here," he shrugged.

"B- but, it didn't sound like… oh, never mind! I must be very tired. I think I need to go home now." Sakura sighed.

"Alright then, good night Sakura-chan!"

"Night Naruto!"

Once the rosette was gone, Naruto went back to packing his belongings.

Naruto sighed. _Thankfully,_ _Sakura-chan didn't seem to know what happen during training today_. That calmed Naruto's nerves a little bit.

He was interrupted again though, when he saw a shadow from his balcony out of the corner of his eye. The silhouette moved side ways almost seemed like it was pacing on his balcony. Although Naruto was not directly looking at it, he noticed it was staring right at him.

When Naruto turned to look at the shadow, it was already gone from his balcony. A chilling sense overcame the blonde.

_What the heck was that?_

His instinct told him to find it, but he forced himself to stay calm and wait, incase it came back. But if it was a person spying on him, he will go out and skin the person alive. After all he had experience skinning animals while training with Ero-sennin. The pervert spend most of their money of sake and women instead of using it for food.

_What am I thinking? It's probably just some animal. Yeah, that's probably it._ The azure-eyed boy confirmed, letting out the breath he was holding. He continued packing as if nothing had happened, but kept his guard up.

Naruto started to get a little nervous since he knew he hasn't locked the balcony door yet. The whiskered-boy turned his attention outside the glass door. He couldn't see much into the night, and the other buildings and trees provided excellent hiding places.

_Whatever it is, it can't be anything bad._

_**Be careful kit, he's now stronger than you think. Don't underestimate him; he won't stop until you submit to him.**_ The fox warned him mentally.

_What?! Who? What the hell does that mean?_ Naruto growled.

The fox made a strange sound almost resembling purring. _**On the other hand, he'll only be like this during the night. We should take advantage of that before time runs out!**_

_What are you talking about?! Tell me, you damn fox!_ The blonde shouted, but Kyuubi stayed silent. The only thing that could be heard from its cage was the echoing of his purring.

Naruto, who was still fuming for the unresponsiveness from the vulpine, stalked to his balcony door and slid it open with a hard shriek, the glass nearly breaking from the impact.

"You better get the hell away from me before I kick the crap out of you!" Naruto shouted before finally locking his door and turning off the lights. He went into the bathroom to change into his pajamas. If there was someone out there, he definitely didn't want to give them the satisfaction of seeing him undress.

If the teen hadn't been in such a livid state, he would have heard disappointed mewls coming from outside his balcony window.

When he came out of the bathroom in his sleeping clothes, Naruto climbed into his bed and forced his mind to think of other things to distract himself, like the upcoming mission. He tried to keep himself awake incase whatever was out there decided to suddenly attack him. A kunai was kept under his pillow just incase too.

Two hours later, he's tired body was almost begging him to go to sleep, but his mind just refused to shut down. He gave an irritated groan. He needed to go to sleep and rest before the mission!

_It would be useless of me to feel too tired to protect someone tomorrow. But I can't let my guard down when there someone spying on me!_

Unexpectedly, his entire room was filled with warm, tingly, almost inhuman chakra. His body immediately relaxed as did his mind. His eyes half-lidded, suddenly feeling the exhaustion from the day. He gave a contented sigh and closed his hazy blue eyes.

_That chakra… it's the same from last night… as well as this morning…_

The exhausted blonde finally went into a dreamless sleep, completely unaware of a pair of obsidian eyes watching him from outside on top of a near-by building where he was hiding. The owners of said eyes mewled and purred, happy that his future mate was finally resting and relaxing. He jumped to the balcony's veranda to watch the Kyuubi container sleep.

He kept passing on more chakra into the blonde's room; he would make sure his future mate was happy, even if it meant doing this the entire night.

* * *

Yes, finally! I'm terribly sorry we didn't update sooner. Sachi was supposed to finish with the first draft a few weeks ago. We really appreciate the reviews and any type of criticism (except flames of course).

Please Review!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to us.

Warnings: bad grammar, bad writing style, yaoi, shounen ai, lime.

To those who don't like this kind of stuff leave now, we are warning you! There's sexual themes in this chapter.

"Talking"  
_Thinking _

* * *

The streets of Konohagakure were, like most mornings, peaceful and quiet. The sun had not yet appeared in the east horizon, and the moon was still visible in the sky. Naruto could not understand how a human being can be awake and fully functional around this time. There should be a law that prohibited people to be out of their homes before the sun comes up.

It wasn't that he was a lazy person -Shikamaru has already taken that role- he had actually woken up completely refreshed and well rested, Kyuubi's comments from last night were buried at the back of is head. He didn't know what to think about what the old fox had said.

So here he was, walking through the faintly lit streets with his travel pack on his shoulders, going over his one-sided conversation with Kyuubi. The half-asleep boy was in no hurry to meet his team outside the gates of Konoha as planned. He did not want to face Sasuke again after their little "fight" session from the day before.

_Why of all people did it have to be with that bastard! How the hell am I supposed to face him through the entire mission?_

He tried to push those thoughts out of his mind, but it was all in vain. He could still feel the pale hand stroking his chest and the husky sounds the other made when Naruto responded to his administrations. The way the Uchiha grinded into him still lingered in him mind, not to mention he actually responded back. Naruto blushed heavily.

_It actually wasn't so bad._

He stopped walking and thinking altogether. Did he just admit what he thought that he just admitted?

_I don't like guys! And I did not just think that I enjoyed doing weird stuff with Sasuke of all people! I do NOT find Sasuke attractive! I DO NOT!_

Okay, maybe he did find him attractive, but who didn't? The other boy was perfect in every sense. But just because Naruto thought Sasuke was attractive, it didn't mean he had to act on it, right? But was it normal to think about his best friend like this?

What had happened the day before was considered wrong to many people in the village, but everything had felt so right to Naruto. The way their bodies fit well together, the way their skin contrasted, the way their hands and touches spoke and responded for them.

But as much as they fitted well together, Naruto couldn't really act on anything. If Sasuke didn't feel the same way or if he was only looking for a way to relieve his frustrations, in the end, Naruto would be the one losing.

Frowning the entire time, he soon approached the village's gates were his teammates were waiting for him and Kakashi to arrive.

Sakura was fixing her back pack and neatly putting her stuff inside, apparently her bag was a little bulky. She was wearing the usual recreational clothes, suitable for easy movement when traveling and light colored to reflect the harsh sunrays in the middle of the day.

Sasuke was standing and leaning against the gate with his eyes closed and hands tucked in his pants pockets. Black charcoal eyes were covered by pale eyelids. The boy's face was relaxed and lacked the mask of indifference and coldness that he usually wore. Naruto was extremely surprised when Sasuke did not even hear him come up, his face and posture never reacted to his presence. It was then that the confused boy noticed how tired the other looked. Dark circles showed under the black-haired's eyes and his face looked paler than usual.

Naruto on the other hand had slept like a log the entire night.

Ignoring his black-haired teammate, Naruto made his way towards Sakura with a huge, bright smile.

"Morning Sakura-chan!"

Sakura looked up from her task of rearranging her traveling pack and smiled genuinely at a beaming Naruto.

"Good morning, Naruto."

"Isn't this cool Sakura-chan?! We're going to the Lighting Country! This is going to be great!"

"I know Naruto! You've said it a million times already!"

"Sorry Sakura-chan. I'm just too excited!"

"I'm well aware of that!"

Just a few feet away, Sasuke opened his eyes and watched his teammates happily interact through tired narrowed eyes. A deep growl almost escaped his throat. If anyone had paid close attention, they would've noticed that dark-blue chakra begun to leak from the dark-haired boy. The Sharingan also appeared, spinning rapidly.

Making up his mind to approach them, Kakashi interrupted with heavy smoke and an annoying "yo!"

"You're late!" Both Sakura and Naruto pointed out.

"Are you all ready to depart?"

"Yeah!" Naruto and Sakura cheerfully answered, while Sasuke just stared.

Kakashi's visible eye closed in a happy arch. "Good! Sakura, finish fixing your backpack, Naruto stop jumping up and down, and Sasuke, stop glaring at your teammates and come over here. We need to set out at this time if we want to arrive at the Lighting Country as soon as possible."

At first, they set out by sprinting through the thick forest, avoiding the rocky soil. Then, they began an easy walk as soon one of them began to tire. Of course, Kakashi was on the lead. Sakura was right behind him and Naruto behind her. Sasuke was right behind him.

Not only was he very tired already, since his chakra levels were extremely low after waking up this morning, but he also stayed behind to give Naruto some space. He figured that's what the other boy wanted, since the blonde has been doing nothing but ignoring him and giving him the cold shoulder the entire day. Every time he tried talking to him, it resulted in awkward stares and random excuses. So far, Sasuke had tried to approach him four times, all of them unsuccessful.

Sasuke couldn't blame him.

The raven-haired didn't know what came over him the day before. He didn't know why he suddenly he felt like he needed to feel his teammate's body or why he wanted and _needed_ to have him at that moment. Despite the fact that the 'incident' could ruin their friendship, (if you can call an obsessed rivalry, friendship), Sasuke felt like a part of him was set free as soon as he roamed his hands over the blonde.

And when he bit the other boy's neck, Sasuke felt a huge amount of weight lift off his shoulders. He felt relief and not to mention huge amounts of pleasure and happiness when the blue-eyed boy didn't push him away and began to respond. That part of him felt like he was tasting euphoria and comfort when Naruto was nearby. Another part of him tried to reason that may be, he was just healthy and it was normal to have feelings like these. Even if those feelings were almost bordering an obsession. He had acted on instincts, or perhaps he was just sexually frustrated.

This morning, the last Uchiha had woken up on the blond idiot's balcony, exhausted due to chakra overuse. He barely had the strength to get up and go back to his own house in order to take a long shower and eat something. He had absolutely no idea how he got to Naruto's balcony and managed to exhaust most of his chakra all in one night, he could have sworn he fell asleep in his own house.

So here he was, being avoided by the other boy. His eyes concentrated on the orange-clad boy's back, knowing full well the other could feel the stares when onyx-black eyes traveled lower to settle on his round, tight-

_Stop it!_ He mentally shook his head to clear his thoughts.

If he continued this behavior, Naruto would freak out and refuse to talk to him. Especially because he insists that he does not swing that way, and that he believes he is in love with Sakura. There is no way he's going to destroy their bonds (as Sai says) just because he was horny and sexually frustrated.

Almost as if testing his theory (of Naruto avoiding him), Sasuke cleared his throat to speak and watched his teammates having a conversation with each other. Right away he noticed that the muscles of the whiskered-boy's shoulders immediately tense. Sasuke had expected the other to turn around and give him an icy glare or pause to yell at him for interrupting his conversation with Sakura, but instead Naruto kept walking, not bothering to stop to even glare.

"Anyways, like I was saying, Kiba told me he is finally going to find enough courage to ask Hinata out for a date," Naruto explained to Sakura.

"Well, I think they make a cute couple, but don't you think Neji-san will get mad? I mean, he's like very overprotective of his cousin don't you think? And what if she says no?" Sakura wondered out loud.

Sasuke sighed softly and rolled his eyes at Naruto gossiping with the pink-haired kunoichi. _Maybe that sexy jutsu of his is finally taking its toll on him and it's turning him into a girl._

He finally settled on focusing on something else besides the boy in front of him.

Looking around the vast open field they were passing through, the Uchiha spotted a couple of fruit trees and tall, green grass everywhere. He could hear a few mice scurrying for food and digging through the earth to build their homes. The smell of upcoming rain filled his nose.

_This is going to be a long trip._

--

"So Kakashi-sensei," Naruto waited until the masked jounin turned to face before continuing, "How many guys are we after in this mission?"

"According to the inn-keeper, there are at least three men after him. He caught three figures sneaking on his cellar one night. They didn't steal anything with much value, but they caused a lot of destruction and trouble for the costumers staying at the inn."

Naruto made a face. "That's it? Just a few thieves and trouble makers? Why are they looking for shinobi from Konoha?"

Kakashi smiled behind his mask. "This mission is for the benefit of everyone… well, mostly everyone. I'll explain when we get there." He motioned them to pick up the pace. They all broke into a light run towards the Lighting Country; otherwise they would be caught in the rain.

--

By the time they arrived at the inn, the sun had set and the skies had darkened. Huge clouds poured buckets of water on top of Team Seven. And if that wasn't enough, cool winds would almost throw them off their feet if it weren't for the heavy loads of their back packs.

It was a pretty good sized building for an inn; it was as tall as three of four stories. Small, trimmed bushes and neatly cut grass surrounded the inn, as well decorative and colorful flowers next to the entrance. The inn was dimly lighted outside by two oil lamps near the entrance, and while the small flames danced and stirred in place, the light provoked shadows, giving it a peaceful yet eerie look.

It was definitely a very popular inn, judging by all the people waiting outside to rent their own rooms. Women and children sat on the door steps and men stood around the entrance, all waiting for their turn to gain some service, looking wet and uncomfortable because of the pouring rain. Even rich-looking tourists stood patiently outside under their umbrellas.

A very drenched Team Seven made their way and pushed aside through the crowds of people to finally make it inside the warm, welcoming inn. Kakashi led his students to the reception desk, which was also cluttered with people trying to pay for a room. Other clients staying at the inn glared at the wet, squishy noises their shoes made and the dripping water trailing after them.

Kakashi ignored everyone and smiled at the receptionist. "Good evening! We'll take four rooms please and could you also tell the land lord that Team Seven from Konoha has arrived?"

The receptionist, a petite brunette, looked up from her book and smiled. "The land lord isn't here at the moment, but I will definitely send him your message. We would like to apologize, but unfortunately there are only three rooms left."

Sighing deeply, he took the keys the brunette offered and paid the rooms. Tiredly, he walked towards his students waiting next to the fireplace.

He passed one room key to Sakura and one to Sasuke. Naruto nervously waited for Kakashi to give him a room key to him too, but the jounin simply bid them good night and turned to walk to his own room.

Naruto hurried after him. "Hey Kakashi-sensei where do I stay?"

Kakashi paused in mid-step and turned to look at his pouting student. The silver-haired man smiled and ruffled wet blond hair. "Sorry Naruto, but you are going to share with Sasuke."

"B-but, can't I just share with you?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, imagine what people would think if they saw me sharing a room with an underage boy. They would probably call me a pervert. It's better if you and Sasuke share a room, you can finally put whatever is making things awkward between you two behind." He patted the younger boy on the shoulder in reassurance but the Kyuubi-container felt anything but comfort.

_But Kakashi-sensei, you __**are**__ a pervert!_

--

They were not surprised to see only one plain bed in the center of the room. That just meant that one of them would be sleeping on the floor, which didn't sound so appealing, considering the fact that both of them were incredibly tired and sleepy. But they could deal that later, right now they were still soaked from the rain, and a bath seemed like one of the best ideas after the invention of ramen, at least in Naruto's opinion.

Another glaring contest began.

"I'll go first bastard!"

"I don't think so, dobe."

"Don't call me that you asshole! I should go first. I'm more wet and dirty than you are!"

"Only because you were clumsy enough to trip and fall on a mud puddle."

Naruto clenched his fists and moved closer to a smirking Sasuke.

"Bastard! I didn't trip! I was just…" he tried to come up with better words. "Distracted! Yea, that's it!"

Sasuke smirk widened. "Usuratonkachi, I saw you trip over your own feet."

Naruto growled. "Yes, you would know, wouldn't you?" At Sasuke's confused stare, he elaborated, "you've been staring at me intently all day!"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You know what intently means?"

The blond haired boy fumed and pointed at the Uchiha. "You've been acting strange since… since yesterday, after y-you...!"

Ignoring the sputtering coming from the whiskered-boy, Sasuke cut him off. "How about a compromise then?" Catching the other's attention, Sasuke continued, "you take a bath first and I get to sleep on the bed."

Naruto frowned. "Why can't I sleep on the bed and you take a bath first?"

"You just said you were more wet than I was, so you go ahead first and I'll take the bed."

"Now way you bastard!"

Sasuke sighed. "Fine dobe, I'll take a bath first and you get to sleep on the floor." Hiding an amused smirk, he disappeared inside the bathroom.

Naruto grinned; "Yes!" a few seconds later, the conclusion of the agreement hit him like a ton of bricks. Blue eyes widened.

"Asshole, you tricked me!"

--

With the sleeping arrangements reluctantly settled, Naruto strode to the side of the bed and grabbed one of the pillows and a blanket settling down on the floor just a few feet from the bed, he made himself comfortable.

"G'night, Sasuke-bastard!" the insult was no longer holding anger like it did a long time ago. He felt much better and refreshed after his warm bath. The young, blue-eyed boy felt a lot happier to finally be able to sleep and for some strange reason, he was actually glad he got the opportunity to share the room with Sasuke. May be now, they could hopefully repair their bonds that were nearly broken three years ago.

After Sasuke had defeated, he wandered alone for days, thinking about completing his revenge and avenging his clan's death, when he came across Naruto's team. Of course, Sasuke just turned away and walked the opposite direction, but Naruto wasn't having any of that.

He jumped at him using the Kyuubi's chakra, taking the form of a fox. Sasuke had no choice but to fight using his cursed seal. There was no way he was going to run away from him like a girl or lose against him.

The fight lasted for awhile, neither of them choosing to lose, but their chakra was quickly diminishing. Though Naruto had unlimited chakra thanks to the fox, he was utterly hurt and drained out.

Finally, both boys fell to the ground once they completely worn themselves out. The rest of Yamato's team and the other teams helped carry them back to Konoha and to the hospital right away. Tsunade healed them the best she could, and let them rest for a couple of days.

While Naruto was constantly pampered by nurses, Sakura, Sai (not really), Tsunade and his friends, Sasuke was watched by Anbu day and night. He was never allowed to move from his bed unless to clean himself or use the bathroom. It was a torture for him to be caged like an animal. He almost wished he was dead.

When Naruto and Sasuke were able to meet again, the blonde was very sure that Sasuke hated him after what he had done. Nevertheless, he never stopped watching after Sasuke; he followed him nearly everywhere he went, just incase he needed something, or if he dared to escape out of Konoha. And as the days progressed, they were able to talk to each other with less awkward moments.

Naruto snapped from his thoughts and turned off the lights. Relaxing, he closed his eyes. The trip had worn him out more than he had thought, not to mention it pissed him off to no end. They had made sure to arrive at the inn as soon as possible in order to protect the landlord because that's what he had requested, but it he wasn't even here to be protected and the receptionist refused to tell them where he was at the moment. Their efforts to rush to get to the Lighting Country had been wasted. And now, all Naruto wanted to do was to sleep like the dead, very much like he did last night and not wake up unless the innkeeper was in dire and mortal danger. He no longer cared that Sasuke was in the same room just a few feet away.

Meanwhile, Sasuke stared at the already sleeping Naruto a few minutes before smiling and muttering a quiet good-night. The Kyuubi container was already wrapped in a cocoon with his blanket and light snores could be heard coming from the boy. Now that the blonde was no longer covered in mud and soaked with water but actually well cleaned, his face appeared a lot more angelic and innocent than before. He looked almost fragile-like or childish with a small feministic hint on his face. His brow was relaxed and his lips were lightly parted. And Sasuke had to admit, Naruto was probably the only person he actually considered stunning and attractive.

The sleeping golden-haired boy looked like he could sleep through fireworks, which means that if they were attacked, Naruto wouldn't notice unless he was accidentally stepped on. Sasuke secretly hoped that his "sleep-walking" episodes wouldn't happen tonight.

--

Most felines were naturally nocturnal, and to him it was the only time that was allowed to come out from the dark prison inside a corner of the Uchiha's mind. He had no idea how the Uchiha managed to block something that was a huge part of him, something that has always been there but just recently freed. The first time he was allowed to come out –the first night- his first priority was to find a mate. The Uchiha already had affections towards someone. He was perfect. Deep blue eyes and golden locks. His best feature though was his chakra. It was mysterious and demonic, much like himself. It was alive. He had to claim Uzumaki –he found out from the Uchiha what he was called- but his stubborn human side passed most of his chances.

It was time to get out…

--

A pair of eyes opened to reveal two red-tinted, slited pupils. The owner of the said eyes looked around the room, confused by the unfamiliar territory. It was just a plain white-colored room, with a few flower paintings to decorate the walls. It also had two chairs and a table, along with a nightstand next to the bed and a closet.

Sasuke began to panic.

_Mate?..._

To his complete surprise, he found his soon-to-be-mate next to him, sleeping on the floor.

Purring sounds emitted from his throat as he approached the sleeping figure. His eyes turning reddish by the second.

He slipped inside the white covers to find his future mate curled on his side. Very gently he lay next to him, almost on top of him because of their closeness, and searched for his neck. He produced a husky yowl when he found the soft skin and nipped it and bit it carefully to avoid breaking the skin.

Naruto did not wake up or even stir from his sleep, probably because he was one of Konoha's heaviest sleepers. However, he did reposition himself on his stomach and mumbled something under his breath.

"Miso soup, please…" Naruto smiled while murmuring a soft "thanks for the food."

Sasuke leered and took the opportunity to switch his position to lie on top of him, with his groin positioned on top of the blonde's behind.

Finally the close contact and the heavy weight on his butt made the blond ninja stir and regain consciousness from his sleep.

"Huh? Wh- what's going on?" the boy said still semi-awake.

Sasuke did not move from his current position, but he did not want his mate to recognize him _yet_. Courting a mate took time and patience. He did not want to be rejected if he moved too fast into their relationship. He had worked too hard to lose him because of his hormones, his mate deserved better than that.

Not wanting to upset or disturb his partner, he summoned his chakra and sent it by channeling it to the blond boy. Slowly, the dark-bluish chakra engulfed the other. Naruto felt exhaustion consume him and fell into a deeper sleep than before. Snuggling his pillow and sighing, he resumed his slumber.

When the raven-haired was finally satisfied that his mate was not going to wake up anytime soon, he continued his "playful" actions on the whiskered boy. He did not know how much longer he could contain himself. Mating season was coming up and he was already frustrated. In fact, his member was fully erect now, which was very uncomfortable in his pants. Not to mention, his crotch was slightly soaked from his precum slipping from the tip of his cock.

Leaving his scent on his mate was his first priority right now. His mate was eye-catching because of his vast chakra levels and of course, his striking looks, and surely will attract other males looking to mate and take his blonde. There was definitely no way he was going to allow that to happen. The whiskered-boy was _his, _and he is the one who will sire children with him.

Unfortunately for Sasuke, clothes posed a big problem as he vainly tried to fumble with them. To be able to leave his scent on him, he needed to remove the clothes and leave traces of his semen near his ass, so other males would back off. Of course, there were other ways to mark his mate, such as biting his neck or leaving scratch marks of his body, but he is not going to hurt his mate physically.

He growled in frustration and wondered how he could get rid of the damn clothes. Naruto was wearing his usual white pajamas he wore to bed, which consisted of cotton pants and buttoned shirt.

_Perhaps biting him is not such a bad idea. _

Sasuke tried to pull the clothes off from his mate with his teeth but it wasn't very affective, in fact, it made it worse. The friction on his crotch increased with the pulling only making him more frustrated. His weeping cock twitched at the contact and ached for more, releasing more seed inside his pants. His heart quickened and blood flowed faster in his body, mostly to his groin. Purring sounds turned into groans and grunts.

The more he accidentally rubbed himself on the sleeping boy underneath him, the more control he lost. He gripped the soft sheets of the bed harder, his sharp claws shredding them into pieces. Clenched his jaws tightly, growling sounds escaping his mouth.

Finally, the last bit of self control left him, and he began to thrust his pelvis against Naruto. It made no difference to him, that both boys were fully clothed and couldn't penetrate him. He was going to leave him scent on him, and he is going to do it _now_!

He started in a slow pace at first, making sure he hit the right spot between the cheeks. Growling sounds could be identified coming from the brunet, while he grasped the other boy's hips tighter.

Humping him faster, Sasuke shoved his right hand inside the blonde's pants, and grasped his limp member to awaken it. Although, the blonde was deeply asleep, his cock began to harden at the touch. Panting harder, he massaged both testicles, squeezing every now and then.

The raven-haired dried-humped him more brusquely, wanting nothing else but to relieve himself and spread his pearly-white cum inside the hyperactive boy. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen because the clothes, but nevertheless, he could still imagine it. He yowled louder and bit the Kyuubi's neck again with more force. He was now marked and claimed as his courting partner.

Both Naruto and Sasuke were breathing harder at the pleasure and burning hot sensations when Sasuke pumped the other boy's cock faster and shoved himself harder into the tight ass of his soon-to-be-mate.

The brunet stroke and pumped the hardening member all the way from his testicles to the head, emitting whimpers from the other.

"Ohh, Sa-!" the Kyuubi container came hard in his sleep, coating Sasuke's hand with hot, white liquid.

With one last thrust, the Uchiha hissed loudly and came inside his pants and soaking it thoroughly. He could've cared less about his pants, but he was definitely disappointed his semen couldn't make full contact with his "significant other's" ass.

_It will have to do._

He pulled back his hand from Naruto's pants and letting him get comfortable on the blankets again.

Licking one finger at a time, he cleaned his hand entirely, tasting his seed.

_He's perfect._

The Sharingan user affectionately licked his mate's lips before settling next to him and embracing protectively.

_You're mine._

Both the brunet and the orange-clad boy sighed contently, snuggling closer to each other. Unfortunately, neither of them realized that a pervert named Kakashi was listening intently in the next room.

* * *

Alright! New chapter!

Thanks to all reviewers, who take the time to give constructive criticism, we really appreciate it! Thank you all!

Everybody! Tell all your friends about SasuNaru and NaruSasu. YAOI shall take over the world!

Iemitsu: Sorry if I disappointed you guys with the lime. It was my first try!  
Sachi: She certainly surprised me!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to us.

Warnings: bad grammar, bad writing style, yaoi, shounen ai, and language. Sorry if there's any mistakes out there.

To those who don't like this kind of stuff leave now, we are warning you!

"Talking."  
_Thinking. _

**HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY NARUTO!** Sorry for the lateness.

* * *

Deep, resounding rumbles echoed inside the burning bars of the prison making the ceiling vibrate. He has been forced to be trapped in this small space for nearly a week, and he was not enjoying it at all. Only when the Uchiha allowed him to come out did he feel better. He could then finally smell the earth, the forests, and the rain. So far though, his favorite scent of all was the fragrance of his soon-to-be-mate. The fox's scent was enough to console him during those short intervals, and it was well worth being in prison.

He hissed softly at the tight position he was in, very careful to not to touch the thick metal bars surrounding him. They were encircled with bright, blazing flames which burned everything that got too close. Though the red inferno injured him if he came near, they produced no heat. It was both a blessing and a curse, since every time the Uchiha became distressed and unhappy; the entire room fell into a numbing, icy, coldness. It was then he wished his fire prison could warm him.

Thankfully, right now the Uchiha was in a deep contented sleep. And since the boy was in no stress, the cage was warm and cozy almost making the demon laugh hysterically at the unfamiliar feeling.

_How satisfying_, he thought.

He purred again as felt the Uchiha shift closer to their mate in his sleep. Apparently, Sasuke was enjoying himself by spooning his body around the blonde.

Swishing the tip of his tail back and forth inside the crammed prison, he hissed.

_It's getting closer… I can feel it. Tell me Uchiha, can you feel the smoldering heat? We usually feel it when our mate is near, our blood boiling up to fiery temperatures under our burning skin._

_We must hurry and mark the boy as our mate. Can you hear me Uchiha? Listen to me; we need to posses our mate soon. It's our night, the fox is ours. The darkness has come. Let me out boy. Time is running out… the season is starting._

--

The sun was just rising in the horizon of the Lightning Country; small sunrays pushed their way inside the hotel room. However, they were stopped from entering by the window curtains, only a few lucky ones managed to get access through. Dew desperately clung on to the window glass, turning into dying strips of water as they fell and pooled on the window sill. The air was fresh and cool from the last night's storm; only with a small hint of sticky humidity was mixed around the sweetness morning chill.

Naruto Uzumaki sighed in contentment. The rain had settled to a quiet drizzle, which made a nice pleasing song as it thumped gently over the damp earth, relaxing the blonde further. A soothing scent woke him fully almost as if it breathed life into him. It was a combination of green tea and something musky albeit flowery, lavender, he guessed. Giving into the temptation, he succumbed to the serene atmosphere, snuggling to his source of warmth, until the said warmth moved to pull him impossibly closer.

Naruto's eyes snapped open. "Wait a minute…"

Something was amiss, usually your bed never moved since it was _under_ you.

He tilted his head to stare behind him and nearly had a heart attack on the spot. His back was tightly pressed against Sasuke's chest. The other boy had been holding on to him in his sleep. A pale arm was curled around his waist, and under the covers, their legs were tangled up together. The brunet's breathing persuasively worked as a massager, his chest moving to gently touch Naruto's back at each intake of breath.

Naruto's heart felt like it was about to explode as it furiously thumped inside his ribcage, the skin in his arms becoming rough with goose-bumps. Not only that, but the hairs at the back of his neck stood as he felt Sasuke's puffs of air on his cheek. The chuunin gazed at the contentedly sleeping Sasuke behind him; their faces close enough for Naruto to touch noses with him.

He swallowed stiffly, doing his best to ignore the millions of butterflies going on a rampage inside his stomach._ What do I do? What do I do?! _

_**Take advantage of the position of course.**_ The fox suggested, an animalistic growl echoing soon after.

Naruto nearly chocked at the implications as he wriggled to loose the embrace. This was bad. If Sasuke woke to find them like this, Naruto just knew he would be decapitated. If he wasn't, then he would be roasted alive.

Kyuubi purred, obviously misunderstanding the wiggling and squirming. _**Yes, like that,**_ he said, glad that the idiotic human took his advice for once.

Naruto's eye twitched._ You old fox, get your mind out of the gutter!_ He struggled harder, eliciting a moan from the still slumbering Sasuke.

Nervously, Naruto froze and allowed the other boy to pull him close to his chest. Unaware of his unwilling companion, Sasuke sighed and buried his face into blond tresses of hair. The arm snaked Naruto's waist tightened possessively while a foreign leg was idly thrown over his own.

But that wasn't what distressed the Kyuubi-container the most, oh no _sir;_ the perverted bastard pressed his pelvis harshly against Naruto's backside, and he actually had the fucking decency to leave it there.

Naruto gulped. He was trapped. Every time he shifted to get away, Sasuke would shift as well and pull him closer. And right now, Naruto doubted that they could possibly get any closer without him toppling on top of the Uchiha. Naruto was starting to consider waking the other by screaming rape at the top of his lungs. But if he woke Sasuke, would he be blamed for their position? Man, it was way too early to be in such a freaky state!

_There's no way I'm going through the embarrassment. _He was sure that as soon as this was over, Naruto would schedule a special ass-kicking, bone-crunching, lip splitting, fist delivery for his rival and friend.

_**How about you just lean back and enjoy yourself, kit? It's not like you never done it before. **_The fox demon seemed to- strangely- have opposite feelings about this awkward moment, then again, the fox never behaved normally, especially when it came to matters of his moron of a host.

Naruto sputtered, a small blush coloring his cheeks. _You perverted fox. I've never done this with a guy before! _Or with anyone for that matter, he added mentally. He just hopped it would be the first and last time. He would keep his chastity intact, even if it meant going celibate for the rest of his life. Well, maybe not the rest of his life.

Kyuubi growled amusedly. _**I was talking about how you always do nothing and enjoy yourself. Who's the pervert now, kit?**_

Irked, Naruto tuned out Kyuubi as best as he could and concentrated on relaxing and evening out his breathing.

_Might as well do this right then,_ he contemplated before closing his eyes and starting his act of feigning sleep.

Only a few minutes passed before Naruto started feeling movements behind him. It took all of Naruto's self-control to not tense or gasp when the other boy accidentally grinded his hips against his backside.

Sasuke ran pale fingers through blond locks softly, greatly enjoying the softness and the light moan the other boy made in his sleep.

The raven-haired scooted over so he could nuzzle the boy's ear, while he purred blissfully. If Naruto hadn't been in such an embarrassing position, he would have laughed at the uncharacteristically weird noises his usually impassive rival was producing.

"Time to wake up, dobe," he breathed out lowly, before he sat up and moved out of the futon. Naruto nearly gasped, his mind fogging up quickly with curiosity and interest. The dark-haired boy sounded huskier and smoother, much richer than usual. But on the other hand, he never gave the other's voice much thought. He sat up dazedly, not needing to pretend.

The Kyuubi-container feigned a yawn and pretended to stretch. "What time is it?" he mumbled, trying not too sound too discomfited. He blinked owlishly to stop himself from staring at changing boy in front of him, but vainly he couldn't.

Sasuke's red eyes flickered to his at the sound of his voice. "We have ten minutes, we should get ready to meet up with K-Kakashi and Sakura," he muttered, throwing some clothes at the blonde, who barely had time to catch them.

Sasuke mentally cursed at how hesitant he sounded, but for a minute there, he forgot where he was and what he was doing. That wasn't a good sign; a ninja should always be prepared and never let their guard down. He just hopped Naruto didn't notice.

Naruto frowned. "Fine," he stood up hurriedly and waved a hand in front of the other's eyes. "You know, you look a little… uh, different," Naruto pointed out. He leaned forward and openly stared or more like gawked at the indifferent ninja.

Sasuke raised a thin eyebrow. "Hn, nothing has changed, dobe."

In spite of the reassurance, Naruto still couldn't get the nagging suspicion that the Uchiha had changed, physically and behavior wise. His hair was a little longer reaching the base of his neck. Ivory canines were barely visible, but you could still see them protruding whenever Sasuke's lips moved. And for Pete's sake he fucking cuddled with him in his sleep! Wait until he 'accidentally' let the info out to the fangirls, which would be the perfect revenge.

Moreover, the other's stunning, flawless face and alabaster skin peeved Naruto a great deal. The other nin looked like one of those models in the magazines Sakura-chan always obsessed about. Endearing red-tinted eyes added to the inhuman beauty, and just now Naruto realized, Sasuke wasn't using the Sharingan. The whiskered-boy shuddered; he cursed all freaky Uchihas and their freaky mind-raping eyes.

_That's very strange. _He shook his head to clear the unwanted thoughts, if Sasuke said he was alright then why was Naruto forced to waste genuine concern for him? Let the bastard suffer alone then. He just better not crawl back to Naruto once his fangirls try to rape him and do who knows what to him.

Instead of changing from his pajamas in the room like the raven-haired, Naruto went inside the bathroom for more privacy. After that little incident, he wasn't taking any chances of embarrassing himself with the brunet.

He began with his shirt than his pants, but just when he thought things couldn't possibly get more humiliating, he found another problem.

_Oh shit! What the heck?! When did this happen?! Did I have a wet dream last night or something? _

_**Perhaps you and the Uchiha had a bit of fun last night.**_

_Shut up you old fox! That didn't happen at all! It must have been a dream._

_**Yes of course. **_The fox purred out, pacing in his cage.

The blonde hurriedly cleaned the dried mess with warm water and a small rag, since he did not have enough time to take his shower. They were supposed to meet with the rest of the team in the lobby in three minutes.

_Kakashi-sensei did say we start at 8 o'clock sharp, but I guess in his watch it means at 10._

Exiting the bathroom and ignoring Sasuke's smirk, the two nin were dressed and ready to head to the lobby. Much to their dismay, neither Kakashi nor Sakura were there yet, leaving them in an uneasy and uncomfortable silence that felt like it could be cut with a butter knife.

It was then that the cat-and-mouse game began.

Occasionally, an aloof Sasuke would shift closer to the deep in thought Naruto, coming as close as possible only letting a small space between them.

Feeling the heat the other was radiating, Naruto opened his eyes wide. "S-Sasuke when did you-" the blonde backed away, very jittery and nervous with their close proximity.

_**Don't you get it, kit? He's trying to keep you close; **_a growl from Kyuubi distracted him from confused crimson-eyes.

_Shut up! I'm not in the mood for your weird jokes!_

_**Who's kidding whom, kit?**_ the demon answered with an impatient snarl.

Naruto growled back. _Fuck off!_

The vulpine opened his yaws into a lazy, full-toothed smile. _**We need the Uchiha for that.**_

Naruto sputtered. "Just shut up already, damn it!" he yelled grabbing his head to block out the malicious comments from the vulpine.

The whole room became quiet.

All of the inn's guests turned to stare quizzically at the orange wearing blond boy shouting in the middle of the room. Even the employees stopped in the middle of their jobs to look for the source of the shouts.

Even Sasuke looked perplexed as he stared with wide red-tinted pools.

Naruto reddened. "Wait! I didn't mean any of you, I was talking to… uh, a friend," he mumbled, embarrassed.

Apparently that did the work since the people went back to their own business.

Sasuke turned to look at the colored blonde and smirked. "You got a knack for voicing your thoughts out loud in public places, dobe."

Still embarrassed, it took almost an entire minute for Naruto to answer. "S-Shut up! I don't want to hear anything from you!"

"Are you two fighting again?" Sakura, who just recently arrived, interrupted their bonding time, if you could call a heated, one-sided shouting-match, bonding.

Naruto narrowed his eyes into slits and pouted. "He started it," he whispered.

Sakura rolled her eyes at the childish expression. "Uh-huh. Good morning Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke grunted in response and closed his eyes, letting himself rest against the wall. His exhaustion from chakra-overuse wasn't as severe as the last time, but still, he couldn't help but feel drained.

Sakura smiled, already used to the uncommitted responses her crush communicated with. "Did you sleep well last night, Sasuke-kun?"

Even after so many harsh rejections (from a long time ago) and gentle let downs (much more recently now), Sakura wasn't about to give up. She had trained and progressively and gotten stronger both emotionally and physically. Sakura knew she was quite ready to give her crush all the time he needed until he made his choice.

The dark-haired didn't respond to that, but he did smirk as he watched Naruto from the corner of his eyes.

Sakura's smile faltered a little, she but kept going, "I sure did enjoy sleeping on a soft mattress for a change. It was getting annoying sleeping in the ground during all our missions," she said, this time with a more confident smile, as she recalled how great it felt now that her sore back had a break.

The incessant chatter from the kunoichi barely helped in bursting the discomforting feeling. Though grateful for it, Naruto was starting to wish he could punch his fists inside his ears to block out the sound. He was having a hard time concentrating with so many loud noises.

Sasuke, too, was feeling more and more aggravated as the female went on and on. Annoyed vibes started to radiate off of him though either Sakura was oblivious to the thundering rain cloud above his head, or she chose to ignore it and mark it as one of the mysteries of Uchiha Sasuke.

He gritted his teeth, his abnormally large canines digging partially at his lower lip. It was his first chance at getting closer to his mate and show what a good choice he would be by demonstrating how much they complemented each other, but the idea was thrown out of the window as soon as this girl appeared. Now he would have to wait for their next chance alone together. That is, if he could wait that long and stop himself from ripping the enticing fox's eye-catching clothes off and manifesting the damn heat coiling in his stomach.

Naruto's eye twitched. He wondered again if he had some kind of sign on his forehead that read 'Uchiha Sasuke look this way if you want to defeat Itachi and gain the Mangekyou Sharingan'. Because the brooding asshole was staring at him again with that expression Naruto's seen on Kakashi whenever he read his annoying books.

And the worst thing of all was that Naruto didn't know what it meant. Was Sasuke mad for waking up next to him? Was he disgusted? Naruto really didn't know. For Sasuke didn't even mention anything about the incident, and hell would become an ice-skating rink with everyone wearing pink-laced tutus before the blonde himself brought the subject up.

Naruto groaned and wiped a drop of sweat from his temple. This place was getting uncomfortable with the morning humidity, and it only seemed to get worse as each minute passed.

_Where the hell is that lazy jounin!_ Naruto thought with a grimace. _I swear if he doesn't come up with a good excuse this time, I'll-_

His homicidal thoughts were interrupted as their unpunctual teacher finally decided to grace his students with his presence.

"Good morning everyone."

"You're late!" both Naruto and Sakura pointed out.

Kakashi appeared to have smiled behind his mask since the fabric crinkled a little. "Sorry about that, the guests in the room next to mine kept me up all night with their passionate noises," he said cunningly and winked at their direction.

Sakura blushed prettily and looked away. Sasuke though, sneered. The man was up to something.

Naruto frowned. "You've been hanging around Gai-sensei haven't you? What kind of excuse is that anyways?" The rest of Team Seven stared, just how thick-skulled could he be?

After a few seconds of silence, Sakura giggled nervously at the strange atmosphere their teacher created. "Can we please get some breakfast so we can start the mission already?"

Everyone agreed quietly. They followed the moving crowd of tourists to the inn's restaurant, with a nice family ambiance and soft, relaxing music in the background. There were beautifully hand-decorated bamboo tables, pastel colors on the walls and ceiling and floral-scented candles.

A young waitress immediately recognized them and bowed low. "Welcome to the Moonlit Garden restaurant. Our director Hirokaure-sama hopes you had a restful night. He will meet you in person after breakfast," she said softly. Naruto inhaled deeply, his stomach growling at the smell of food.

The waitress bowed at them again and walked away. "This way to your table please," she handed them their menus, of course not before throwing a flirty smile at Sasuke's direction, only to be expectedly ignored.

"Do you make ramen?" Naruto suddenly asked earning him odd looks from the waitress.

"Of course not, Naruto you idiot. This is a modern restaurant," Sakura answered for her.

Sasuke glared coldly at the pink-haired girl, friend or not, she had no right to call his intended mate an idiot, even it was true. No one has the right to point out his mistakes and faults, no one but himself. He was about to say something to the girl, but his rage slowly melted off his face and was replaced by mirth as the scolded blonde pouted and miffly scanned the forgotten menu.

"I'll take the waffles then," he mumbled sullenly.

The waitress bowed as soon as she got everyone's orders and left.

When things finally started to calm down, Naruto and Sakura settled in a nice, easy conversation about the ideal date.

"No, no Naruto! The perfect date has to be organized in three parts. First a movie, preferably a romantic comedy or even a horror movie, that way you can cuddle up to your date (her cheeks colored at that). Then dinner, a nice restaurant like this would be perfect. And finally a walk in the park, the colder the night the better," at the confused look practically screaming on Naruto's face she elaborated, "If it's cold then that means you and your date will be closer, sharing body heat while watching the stars." Her eyes shone brilliantly, hopping deeply that a certain dark-haired nin was listening and taken a hint.

Naruto on the other hand wasn't moved. "Why do girls have to be so complicated? I mean, why does organization matter as long as you have fun. If you ask me, I really wouldn't care what I did as long as there was ramen involved at the end of the day," he cheekily made his ideas clear.

Sasuke then raised an eyebrow, the Usuratonkachi was obviously lying. The blonde was a hopeless romantic at heart. Judging by the numerous times Sasuke had cached him staring wistfully at the couples that they passed every once in a while, the Kyuubi-container longed for someone to be with. Without worrying about been hated for who he was or what he contained, of course.

Sasuke had already known about Kyuubi since he entered the other's mind back at Orochimaru's hideout. It didn't bother him, in fact, it excited the Uchiha prodigy to be near something so powerful and destructive inside someone that couldn't be anymore caring and happy despite been its host.

The sun-kissed boy was the first to forgive him when he left and he was the first to trust him and welcome him back. Nothing brought the little ball of sunshine down. He was stubborn, loud-mouthed, and quite idiotic at times. However, he was devoted, cheerful, and protective of his loved ones. In other words, he had the qualities of a marvelous mate; regardless of the pig-like manners he had.

Naruto munched contently on his syrup covered waffles as soon as they arrived. He licked the excess syrup off of his fingers, licking one by one clean. Being a typical Uzumaki behavior, Sakura and Kakashi gladly ignored him. Although, Kakashi occasionally sneaked looks at his students and ate only when they had their attention elsewhere. Unlike everyone else, Sasuke couldn't help but pay extra close attention to the kitsune and purred softly.

_I'll have you doing that to me soon, Naruto. _He bit back a moan when Naruto started to suck on each digit. By now, most of his blood had pulled down to one place by the show. Dark eyes drinking the sight greedily not daring to take his sight away.

He kept purring, softly enough that no one could hear, though a deep throated yowl escaped his mouth in protest as Naruto finished, disappointing the now-turned voyeur.

Too far gone after the erotic show, Sasuke leered, his newly grown fangs showing for a second before leaning in and slowly licking a syrup-covered cheek. With the very tip of his tongue, he stroked Naruto's whiskered cheek, from the edge of the jaw up to his cheekbone.

Time seemed to have sat still for a moment, in which Naruto nearly forgot how to breathe, his heart speeding, and his mind overrun with incoherent thoughts. Kakashi was staring at Sasuke with uneasy surprise, not expecting his student to be so forward.

A strangled feminine gasp of alarm seemed to shake Naruto out from is zombie-like trance.

"What the hell, Sasuke?!" the blond nin wiped his warming cheek with the back of his hand, seething when Sasuke's smirk widened.

Everyone in the restaurant turned over to look at the loud kid that dared to disrupt the peaceful ambiance _again_, before going back to their food and drinks, muttering about the overexcited youth of today.

Sakura blushed at the attention they had brought to themselves and hissed softly at an enraged Naruto. "Naruto! What have you done to Sasuke-kun?!"

Her teammates turned to look at her in astonishment. Naruto frowned, while Sasuke narrowed his reddeding eyes at the unfair accusations.

"What do you mean, Sakura-chan? He's the one who just licked me! I didn't do anything!"

Sakura took a deep breath to control her raging emotions before speaking with a patient voice. "Naruto, you spend more time with Sasuke-kun than me and Kakashi-sensei combined. It's obvious that-"

Sasuke gritted his teeth. "S-Sakura," he hissed, ignoring the surprised look she showed from both the usage of her name and the difference of his normally calm voice. It almost sounded like the dark-haired was growling at her, though it could have been her imagination.

Naruto ignored the brunet's help at dropping the subject, too far gone in his anger to notice. "There's nothing going on! Sasuke-bastard is just losing his mind!"

_Yeah that's right. All those years with that perverted snake-bastard made Sasuke insane like his psycho brother, except he never killed anyone related to him so, uh..._

_**So? It's normal to have a kiss from a friend, right?**_

Naruto blushed. _Well sometimes but, wait! Did you say k-kiss?_

Kyuubi chuckled, a feat very irregular or more like nonexistent, almost sounding like between a growl and a huff. _**You humans are so amusing. Of course it was a kiss, an animal kiss, you ignorant brat!**_

Sakura slapped him upside the head with enough force to almost make it slam against the table. "Snap out it, Naruto!"

Sasuke hissed softly, wondering how long he would let this go. His ears were having a difficult task catching everything they said, almost as if their voices were secured feedback, only being able to pick up a few words. But he could still detect the emotions in their voices; he grimaced, cursing when the feedback began to grow worse.

"-decided to lick you because you looked yummy, please!" Sakura bellowed, no longer caring if they were making a scene.

"Alright that's enough!" Kakashi called out, his voice calm but irritated.

The jounin sighed and turned to face Naruto. "Perhaps you're still tired from the trip." Amongst other things as well, he mentally grinned. "So it will be best if you take a break. We will complete the mission ourselves."

Naruto's eyes widened at that. "What- No wait, I feel fine! I can do the mission!"

"I would rather if you stayed and rested."

Betrayed blue-topaz eyes searched his teammates for support, but calmly the only girl in the team refused to meet his eyes.

Sasuke glared first at her then at the floor, blinking confusedly as he tried to avoid his mate's saddened expression. He wondered nervously if this would affect his choice. He knew very well he was the cause of it. Guilt stabbed at his heart, as he mentally yowled and hissed.

The brunet wasn't exactly sure what he did wrong, the entire conversation was beginning to sound like gibberish. But seeing as his intended was practically radiating angry and frustrated waves, and seeing that they were mostly directed at him, told him he had royally fucked up.

Inhaling deeply at his future mate's fading scent, he promised himself he would make it up to his bonded later as he finished the mission that Kashi… Kabishi…

Sasuke growled. _What was his name again?_ He sneered; he was getting another migraine, which could probably be the cause of his slight amnesia. Maybe he could ask his medic teammate to fix it for him. Now, if only he could remember her name…

--

The whole day went by slower than what Naruto had anticipated. And you could only get away with a few pranks before the inn's clients complained off to the manager and kicked his ass out. It didn't matter that he knew the owner of the hotel, whom he should be protecting if it wasn't because of a certain Uchiha-fucking-Sasuke. Sure, the first few times that he heard screams of both terror and annoyance from unfortunate tourists had been refreshing; he still had his pranking-touch. But after a while, the pranks seemed to have dropped both their creativity and his interest.

He decided to take a walk around the village and see were his boredom took him. After the first ten minutes, he had stuffed himself with food from the stands on the crowded streets. He even tried a few of the so obviously rigged games and impressed a small group of rich tourists by secretly using chakra and ninjutsu to win.

One of the stand owners frowned, very displeased that he won though he didn't manage to prove that the orange-clad boy was using any type of jutsu. Naruto chuckled at the very suspicious look and the big, fake smile the stand owner gave him as he handed him his prize of choosing.

Naruto came face-to-face with glassy ashen eyes belonging to a black stuffed kitten plushie. He didn't know exactly what possessed him to pick it; probably because a rude, snotty kid had been playing the rigged game to win it for far longer than Naruto had. And pretty much Naruto ended up giving into his competitive side. The kid then began to bawl his eyes out when Naruto purposely picked the kitten and stuck his tongue out childishly.

It was nearly sundown when the blonde began walking back to the inn, with kitten plushie on one arm and a badly injured kneecap where the obnoxious child had kicked him. His already healing injury was just another reason in his list to be mad at Sasuke, since it was his idea to go berserk and decided to lick him (kissed, Kyuubi corrected) right there in front of Sakura-chan, knowing damn well she liked him. Now Sakura-chan hated him, and Kakashi-pervert thought he was weak or sick.

As he entered the inn and went up the stairs to his and Sasuke's room, he was considering on naming his new plushie Sasuke. That way, Naruto could throw it around the room and pretend it was the real Sasuke and release his frustrations out on it. Or even better, he could use it as prank for his friends. He could see it now:

"Hey Naruto, want to come to the training grounds and spar?"

"Sorry, I have to go home and wash Sasuke, see ya!"

Naruto chuckled at his own musings. Iruka-sensei was right; he really had a runaway imagination.

Feeling slightly better, he grabbed his pajamas and went over to the bathroom to shower and change.

He stripped out of his orange attire and his boxers, and waited for the shower to heat up. After a few seconds, he moaned softly in relief as the lukewarm water soothed out his tied up muscles.

_That stupid Sasuke, when he gets back, I'll definitely give him a severe beating,_ he thought, working some shampoo on his hands and lathering his hair. The blonde didn't even notice when he actually thought when _he_ gets back instead of when _they_ get back.

_That pervert psychopath ruined my day since this morning, spooning me like I was some sort of slutty chick and waking up to find that aliens had stolen Sasuke and left a perverted clone._

He blushed, remembering how his teammate and best friend had affectionately threaded his fingers in his hair and kissed him…

_**Snap out of it! The last part didn't even occur at all you imbecile! Your imagination is running again!**_

_Oh shit, really? Where'd that come from then?_

_**Who knows? You must be sexually frustrated.**_

_I am NOT! It's not my freakin' fault that Sasuke-bastard was messing with me. _

_**You must acknowledge that you enjoyed it, kit.**_

_Well, maybe I- Stop this now! I am __**not**__ thinking about my best __**male**__ friend in the shower, god dammit!_

He furiously finished his shower faster than before, trying to not touch a specific part of his body as much as possible. He dressed in comfortable pajamas and left the bathroom. Sasuke hadn't returned yet, which meant that Naruto automatically won the bed while the dark-haired gets to sleep on the floor. The blonde nodded, as if he was convincing himself that his unjust reasoning actually did make sense. Naruto just hopped Sasuke would stay in his own bed this time.

Sudden scratching noises coming from the balcony's window snapped him out of his unreasonable thoughts.

"What the hell?" he mused out loud.

The scratching noises continued, if not sped up at the sound of his voice.

Not exactly sure what to expect, Naruto grabbed a kunai from his pouch and crept up to the window.

_Great if it's a robber then that'll conclude this dandy day!_ He edged closer and pulled the hatch that secured the sliding door and opened it, a kunai ready in his other hand.

At a blink of an eye, a large shadow jumped through the opening and tackled the blonde to the floor while straddling his waist. No amount of training as ninja could've helped him avoid that.

"What the fuck!" Naruto gasped, his breath knocked out at the impact. It took him a few eye-blinking moments before he got his vision back, and almost wished he hadn't.

"Sasuke?" Trying to slow his beating and pounding heart, the boy currently being used as a sitting-stool glared furiously.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! Why did you freaking tackle me for?! There is such thing as using the door, you know!"

The boy on top of him just smirked, showing much sharper canines than this morning. His eyes were now full crimson red, though again, the Sharingan wasn't activated.

Naruto placed his hands on Sasuke's chest and pushed him off quite roughly, standing up shakily.

"Stay away from me! I'm still pissed at you! It's your fault I couldn't join you and the others with the mission!" Naruto huffed.

"I- it, wasn't, interesting," came a forced out reply. Sasuke scowled deeply. _Since when was it this difficult to speak? Curse these lousy humans and their pathetic excuse of a language._

He tried again though once he had Naruto's attention. His mouth working with great difficulty to make the sounds come out. "Caught the thieves quickly. Boring," he said huskily, panting slightly.

Naruto's eyes nervously darted between the door and an approaching Sasuke. "Still… I wanted to be part of this and you knew that! And what's with the Tarzan-speech?" he accused whiled backing away.

Sasuke sneered exposing his fangs, before opening his mouth to answer.

"S-sorry," he made out.

Naruto snapped his head to look at him quickly, nearly sounding like he had dislocated something. "Did you just apologize?" he said disbelievingly. Next thing you know, Kakashi will stop reading his perverted books.

Okay, so when he said that aliens had stolen Sasuke and left this copy he wasn't exactly serious, but now it seemed reasonable as he watched Sasuke roll his red-hued eyes.

"I didn't intend for Kakashi to disregard you." _There that's much better. Hopefully he didn't notice anything_, the raven-haired hopped ineffectively, Naruto might be a clueless ninja but he wasn't that clueless was he?

Naruto narrowed his eyes and took a step forward, brandishing the kunai in his hand once more. "Who are you and what have you done to the real Sasuke?"

"You moron, I'm Sasuke!"

"Then tell me, what's been going on with you lately!" Naruto said indignantly. "You follow me every where, you gaze at me for hours, you licked my cheek this morning, and you just pounced on me!" he listed lividly. He briefly wondered if he should mention the morning incident and accuse Sasuke of molesting him, but he quickly thought otherwise. Sasuke would just twist his words around anyway, and blame him for it.

The Uchiha prodigy looked away and after a few seconds of silence, he moved faster than Naruto had anticipated, for the other pushed him painfully hard against the wall. His body trapped his own.

"I'll tell you." Sasuke smirked again and pulled the blonde closer, rubbing himself against him slowly with his quite visibly erection. "But are you sure you want to know?"

Naruto gulped, he could feel himself growing weaker and warmer all at once. Perhaps this was a bad idea, but he couldn't help but feel curious at the boy's answer. He nodded.

"Very well," Sasuke stared at him for a long minute, then tightly he took hold of Naruto's chin. His fingers clamped on him till it hurt. He leaned over until their noses nearly touched.

"I want you," he said shamelessly.

* * *

Thank you all for all the reviews! They were very refreshing and inspired us to work harder! PLEASE continue reviewing, it really helps. We'll also try to answer some of them here!

**Kuragari Rya**- technically he will turn into a neko, but it will be a different type. We are trying not to make this as clichéd as other fics.

**Midna**- the reason we picked a cat demon was because we've noticed Sasuke is usually described as a wolf or a cat. And to be honest we thought the cat would be more interesting than a wolf, otherwise he would be like a werewolf or something.

**Angel Fantasy**- your right. When the demon bit him, he transferred some of his chakra and DNA, that's what gave him the high senses and extra chakra. But the double personally was already within him, the bite just triggered it.

**Evil-sami-poo** and **Kai** – they will find out about the demon, but it will happen in time.

**Greatstars**- the double personally takes over him during the both night and when he goes to sleep because as soon as he relaxes he lets his inner demon out. That's mostly why this fic is called After Dark.

-

By the way, you must've guys noticed Sasuke is having memory-lapses because the longer he stays in the condition he is, the more he forgets about what's going on during the day, including normal human activities (like talking).

Thank you to everybody else!! We love you all. If you got more questions then just review!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to us. And damn it, I don't want it anymore. Stupid Kishimoto! I mean… err…

Warnings: bad grammar, bad writing style, yaoi, shounen ai, and language. Sorry if there's any mistakes out there.

To those who don't like this kind of stuff leave now, we are warning you!

"Talking."  
_Thinking. _

**Please read:  
I made a really horrible mistake. ****I said in chapter one that Itachi was dead, but truth is… he's not. **

**Thanks to SilverMoonRyu for catching that. Sorry for the confusion. So like, Itachi is alive in this setting. I REPEAT, THE WEASEL IS ALIVE!!**

* * *

There was only one occasion when Naruto had the fortune of witnessing Uchiha Sasuke making a joke. It had been an unusually hot morning. No birds dared to leave the safety of their trees. No person right-in-the-head could step out of their homes without proper protection, gallons and gallons of sunscreen and human-sized water bottles. Even insects swallowed the urge to zoom out and enjoy the day.

The inferno that Konoha had succumbed to made Naruto feel like even _hell_ could be a great resort to chill while sipping a nice glass of lemonade with a little umbrella tilted at the side. Put a battered fish on the ground, and with a little oil, you'll be frying tempura right on the streets. Naruto couldn't _wait_ for the sun to reach noon.

Team Seven was busy in a D-rank mission back then, back when their faces were full of baby fat and their cute facial features made them all look androgynous, even Sakura.

Picking weeds and planting herbs had been their task, an easy one. But with the sun over their sweat-soaked heads glaring like a one-eyed giant, Naruto actually saw a poor ant, probably missing from its colony, roasting as soon as it stepped out into the radiant beams.

Naruto was sure he was leaving his happy home called _Sanity_ and entering the borders of _Paranoia_ since he could have sworn he heard the ant cry out as it caught on fire and combusted right in front him.

Not a nice thing to witness really.

Their clothes had stuck to their exhausted bodies like they haven't been wearing anything. Their faces were flushed with the heat, and their movements were sluggish. And since Naruto was convinced he was going to die of a heat-stroke, why not make a last effort?

So the twelve-year-old boy bent low on the garden where he was supposed to be planting herbs, getting a full view of what Sakura's red dress was covering.

Too bad she had been wearing shorts though.

Furiously, the girl had slapped him hard enough to spit out a few drops of blood from where he had bitten his own tongue. One of his molars also became loose from the blow.

That very night while dinning out at Ichiraku's, Naruto had shrugged and told a very expressionless Sasuke that he was eventually gonna lose the tooth anyway.

"Wouldn't you have done the same?" Naruto had asked with a broad grin.

Sasuke then gave him a flat '_are you stupid?_' look and said, "I think, I would have rather stand behind you." And managed to keep a straight face while doing so.

Naruto responded by laughing at the joke, only to wince when he bothered the huge crater where his molar used to be.

--

Back then, Naruto had taken the banter as a joke, because he knew Sasuke meant it as in 'watching out for a friend' type. Hell, even Sasuke, the cause of the strange notion himself, had given a good humored grunt after Naruto started laughing.

But _this_?

This was completely different from all those years ago. Because as Naruto stared deeply into the serious, red orbs of his teammate, he noticed that the mirth and the amusement weren't even there. The hand gripping his chin stopped him from looking away or pulling back. And was worse, the other's body prevented him from going anywhere. He was trapped against the wall.

Naruto gulped, the closeness of the other boy was making him slightly claustrophobic. "I am not in the mood for this," he muttered through grinded teeth. A rough jerk from his arm flung the pale hand, gripping him tightly, back to Sasuke's side.

With the same hand, Naruto pushed at a still smirking Sasuke's shoulder, only to frown when the other wouldn't move. "Seriously, Sasuke. It's late, I'm tired, and you kept me from enjoying the mission."

Sasuke frowned deeply. "It was-"

"Yeah I know, boring. You already said that- back off, dammit!"

Naruto was now considering the option of throwing a Rasengan at the bastard's face. Damn him and his talented way of ignoring everything. Sasuke hardly reacted to the pushes or the anger-coated words. In fact, he looked like he was enjoying the resistance, considering the fact that he always liked a good challenge.

"Dobe, I'm being truthful." The words were almost purred, freaking Naruto out to the extent that he wanted to really carry out his mental threat. The blond wasn't going to strike his friend with a Rasengan; he was going to make him swallow it.

"Like hell you are!" Naruto became paralyzed on the spot, almost in mid-threat. Something rough and wet made a trail from his collar bone to the pulse of his neck just below his ear.

_Wha? Sasu…ke?_ "Did you just-" His cheeks felt like they were bonfires while his heart danced with tremendous speed. Now, where did his brain copy that mushy shit from anyway?

It was probably the volume from the lawnmower in the background; it was too damn loud to help him concentrate.

_Who mows their lawn at night?_

Naruto blinked quickly. _That- that isn't a lawnmower, is it?_

It was actually coming straight from Sasuke's throat. The guy was actually purring, again. Unfortunately with the close proximity, Naruto had a good earful of the tickly vibrations.

Naruto prepared to let out a laugh. A guy like Sasuke was purring, wait until the fangirls find out about it. Their idea of Sasuke being incredibly heroic and astute would shatter into a million fragments and become scattered in the eastern winds towards the snow-covered mountains… Oh wow, he should really stop feeding his brain those cheesy romance books his pink-haired teammate wearyingly kept asking for him to read.

Anyways, the rabid fangirls would never believe him if he told them. So why bother?

_**You brute, it's not like you haven't heard it before.**_

_Quiet you old parasite; I'm trying to concentrate here. _Tuning out, Naruto made a show of narrowing his eyes, because that's what he has seen other geniuses- like Shikamaru- do when they concentrated.

Back to the matter at hand, the cause of the pesky sounds…

"Shit! Back… _off_!" With a mighty rush of strength, the creeped-out blonde threw away a previously content Sasuke a few feet from his current position. If Naruto hadn't been busy having an aneurysm from the shock, he would've done more than just watch how he twisted his torso and landed with a disgruntled growl on all fours.

"You- I'm- Why?-" Obviously, multi-tasking wasn't really Naruto's forte. And since accumulating information required the use of his brain, it meant that actions had to come later until the organ was available. So instead, the boy stiffened and leaned heavily against the wall, face askew in bewilderment.

Sasuke wrinkled his nose at the disruption. "What _is_ it?" he said exasperatedly, fighting the growl that threatened to bubble up inside his larynx.

Naruto hastily wiped his neck and cheek where the other had been licking him vigorously, then cleaned his hand on his pants' leg. At the third try of cleaning whatever germs the other had left, he halted.

_I let him! Oh hell, Sasuke, my best friend and most important person, licked me _again_ and I let him._

Naruto slumped in disbelief, is mouth half-open comically. The mental picture of what they probably looked like flashed brightly like an annoying billboard inside his mind, making a knot of emotions tighten in his chest.

"You-!" He waited to make sure the other was listening before exploding, "You fucktard! Do you think this is funny?" Not even five seconds and his jugular vein on his throat had become visible in the exertion of yelling. "Messing with me like this, spewing a bunch of nonsense, and licking and lapping me like a dog!" And what about what happened this morning, he wanted to add but everything was starting to mush together in tangles, and his head was beginning to show signs of a headache.

Sasuke's reddened eyes blinked, appearing undisturbed from where he was still crouching in his place. "Why is it so hard to believe? I like you."

The casual way he said it didn't faze Naruto a bit. Sasuke had only two ways of speaking, monotone and iceberg-up-in-the-ass cold. Interpreting was something Naruto learned to do over the time they spend together; and after years of miscommunication and training his ears, Naruto could proudly say he was fluent in Sasuke-speech. _So,_ that wasn't it.

It was the deep, content rumble from the old vulpine that shocked him. The demon was actually enjoying this. Did the fox abhor Naruto so much he was sadistically taking pleasure in watching the other make a fool of himself? Or it could be something else entirely. Somehow, Naruto entertained the idea that maybe the demon detested Sasuke and was taking benefit in the vulnerable position the Sharingan-user had cornered himself in after the confession.

Confession. Shit, it really did happen, huh? Yes, Naruto was shocked. Yes, Naruto actually understood the meaning of it. And yes, he was aware Sasuke was been laid-back yet serious at the same time. And for some reason, the flip in his stomach made Naruto want to _snap. _

Posture tensing, Naruto lurched forward and threw a hard punch at the other's left temple. It didn't matter to the chunnin that he was in a room with his teammate at night, with neighbors at both sides that could actually hear the fight if they so easily tried.

Though unnerved at the unresponsiveness from his mate, Sasuke could not stop himself from staring shamelessly at the vacant, weary look in the other's figure. Thoughtfulness was an emotion that looked well on the blond; it made him seem more like his age and experience, except when he was angry.

Sasuke ducked in time, just a little discouraged at the turn of events. "Stop shitting me! Why would a guy say that to another guy?!" Naruto winced slightly. His fist made contact with a wooden wall instead of his friend's skull; but there was just a small throb and the pain was gone. At least the Kyuubi pitied him enough to heal him.

Crouching on all fours again, Sasuke stared at the blood that began to ooze out of the tan knuckles, and sniffed. "Dobe." He swallowed the hiss that was beginning to take form before continuing. "I do like you." He could almost hear the voice inside his head snarl with both impatience at the slow progress and frustration at the bad timing.

_There is a processes in a process, rush and it'll fall apart. Take your time and you'll be back at the start._

Though it was subtle, the fiery, booming voice dulled to low flames. And Sasuke could almost picture it pacing hesitantly.

"L-like?" This time, the same words caused Naruto to stay quiet for a full minute. Blank, blue eyes gazed soundlessly at the floor, as if it had the answer for his dilemma.

Where was all this coming from exactly? It shouldn't have been like this! They had been friends for years, way before they became a team –though neither of them dared to admit it- and way before they actually said it.

Naruto absentmindedly traced his tongue over his teeth and stopped at the enlarged canines.

_Is Sasuke playing another joke?_

The blond wasn't sure but it could be that Sasuke was trying to get back at him for something he did. Because the Uchiha had a habit of misunderstanding serious situations, like the time Itachi so randomly appeared in Konoha in the task of leaving with the Kyuubi-container. Sasuke had then probably assumed his brother was back to finish the job and attacked immediately, reason left somewhere behind the tempting thoughts of revenge.

So the Uchiha was trying to get back at him for something? Like what? As far as he knew, Naruto had not done anything serious to piss Sasuke off enough to make him act so out of character. Itachi, though a sensitive subject and a one-way ticket to torment and torture if ever brought up in ten mile-radius next to the said Uchiha, had not been mentioned by anyone at all. Naruto clenched his jaws together in shear frustration. What had _he_ done exactly?

Then it suddenly struck him. Oh… _Oh_.

After a few seconds, Naruto hardened his stare. And it made Sasuke think that the only reason the floor didn't collapse in fear was just because it _couldn't_.

Five full minutes passed before there was a reaction from him. Slowly, he brought up his eyes, though he made no eye contact with the brunet. He looked decisive as if he had finally answered the meaning of the universe and its creation.

"I get it. You're still mad because I brought you back, aren't you?" Sasuke's eyes widened. That certainly wasn't what he was expecting. Truthfully, he didn't know what he was expecting, probably another punch or a heated argument, but that certainly wasn't _it_. And what was worse, Sasuke couldn't decide if Naruto looked genuinely confused or hurt.

Wait, how the hell did you come up with this? Sasuke opened his mouth to ask, but he only managed to surprise himself even further when only a soft hiss erupted instead.

And obviously the idiot took the wrong way. "I'm sorry, I guess, for taking your chance of revenge and all."

"T-that's not…" Sasuke half-growled.

"You didn't have to go this far though."

"Idiot!"

Naruto gave him a glowering look. "Some people actually care what happens to you. _I_ care what happens to you. And so does Sakura. Yet yesterday-"

"Moron!" Shaking, Sasuke balled up a fist and punched the floor. Astonishingly, the wooden floorboards withstood the force of the impact. The brunet took a deep breath, willing the fury and irritation to quell down.

"Yeah, I'll sleep in the hallway," he murmured impatiently and gathered a pillow and the outer sheets of the unoccupied bed.

Before Sasuke could retort, an explanation or a growl, the door of the room had closed with a soft click.

_Useless! You ruined everything!_

--

For the 25th time in only two hours since the fight, Sasuke made a small turn and paced over the floor soundlessly. He was upset, and at the same time he wasn't. It hardly went how he wanted it to go. Not even close.

Sasuke groaned and looked for a distraction. The window on the furthest wall became the object of his heated glares. Moving closer at some point (Sasuke was way too distracted by now), a soft breeze waltzed through his ruffled spikes. The room was way too hot, almost stuffy, and the change in temperature was pure heaven. He sighed. At least he got it out. Naruto knew. Well, he knew, but refused to let it sink in. How very… dobe of him.

But, the weirdest thing about the entire situation was that he was nervous.

Nervousness wasn't an emotion he blended well with. Sasuke couldn't remember the last time he felt like jumping at every creek the room made, or throwing hopeful glances at the closed door like a child. No. He _could_ remember a time. When he was still a child and Itachi was a good brother. But the moment felt so factitious, he wondered if he actually made it up. Maybe he did. Whatever. Frankly, it was making him feel nauseated. Sasuke just wanted this to end, for his mate to agree, to give a relieved sigh. And… damn the room was _way_ too warm.

He almost felt like he was been suffocated by invisible scathing hands, clamped in an everlasting hold around his throat.

The sun had long set, leaving the hotel room in depressing, lonely shadows that just seemed to be fitting, considering his current mood. The stillness and silence, however, brought some sort of comfort, since he was able to listen to his mate's steady heartbeat behind the closed door. He could even hear the ruffle sounds his clothes made when he shifted in a different position. Anxiety crawled inside his stomach again.

Perhaps he really did cross the line, and scared Naruto for good. He did bring this out of the nowhere, everything that has happened. The day in the training grounds with the Hyuuga, the incident in the restaurant, and the night when he nearly claimed the fox as his mate. The last one was a given though, Naruto had been asleep, which was even _worse_.

Shit, now he felt guilty. His emotions were definitely on a roll today. Tonight. Morning. Whatever time it was actually. Either way, his mind didn't particularly care.

Sasuke knew he should hardly treat Naruto as if he was only after his body, because it wasn't. Although, it _was_ somewhere in the top five.

_Some people actually care what happens to you._

That was why. Every time he was near Naruto, his chest filled with such warmth. It felt like he belonged and that he wasn't a missing-nin just a few months prior. Like he never left home and almost a gave his soul to the snake. As if his brother hadn't lost his mind and his family were still alive. That's how he felt. Ever since he came back to Konoha and Naruto nearly punched a hole in his head for leaving, he had felt alive again.

For the sake of the blond, Sasuke thought that he _could_ tone it down a little and explain himself before things got out hand. Perhaps, even apologize.

_If only it was that easy._

Naruto believed Sasuke was angry with him, probably crazy in the head too. And what can Sasuke do, when he could hardly speak a sentence without growling or hissing?

_The fox will understand._

So what if _Naruto_ doesn't?

_Irrelevant. We're after the fox not the human._

Sasuke snapped, accidently biting his inner cheek and causing blood to fill his mouth within seconds. He swallowed the metallic taste and hissed softly under his breath.

He would not betray Naruto, if there was a mating going to happen, it'll go both ways.

_How foolish of you. The human is just a fold of skin, an outer layer. What we want is what's underneath. _

And what exactly is that?

_Heat. _

--

It was a few minutes past midnight when the door of the room, they were supposed to be staying at, opened quietly. A process that nearly took him half an hour.

The hallway was lit only by the moonlight that escaped from the small opening of the hall before the silver rays were devoured by darkness.

It didn't matter; he didn't need light to see a blanket-covered figure curled up on the floor.

Naruto snored softly from where he was laying, making Sasuke wonder how the hell could he sleep when he looked so uncomfortable. The light bed sheet was thin and hardly good enough to chase out the chill that crept in the hallway. The pillow that was tucked under those tresses of sunlight looked like it was overstuffed; Naruto's neck was tilted in what it seemed like a permanent yoga position.

Sasuke trailed his now-glowing crimson orbs over his teammate's form, just beneath the light sheet; he could perfectly see the ebb-and-flow rhythm of the blonde's slow breathing. It was alluring to watch, soothing even. Before he knew it, Sasuke was right next to the loudmouth, one hand reaching out towards him and breathing at the same slow pace as the sleeping boy.

_I missed… you._ He felt hot again. Perhaps the boiling temperature from inside the room seeped outside the hall and was now making a comeback.

But instead of torturing him, the warmth was making him feel light-headed, in a pleasant way. He wanted to feel the skin underneath the annoying clothes and bed sheets, run his hands over his mate's form and trail his fingernails over the taunt muscles found there. Manifesting the heat was what his body wanted. Unfortunately, his head had another thing in mind.

Carefully as to not disturb his partner's sleep, Sasuke's right hand gently snaked beneath Naruto's neck, greatly enjoying the contact and tickling made by the other's hair on his arm. His left hand threw the useless bed sheet off of Naruto's unconscious form and weaved beneath pajama-covered legs.

By now, Sasuke heatedly ran his eyes over the sleeping boy's uncovered body, purring softly. 'It's not like staring is a crime anyway', his eyes seemed to say in defense.

With a small twitch in the corner of his mouth, Sasuke heaved up Naruto in his arms, standing and pulling him closer at the same time.

_Don't run away from me anymore. _Wasn't that what Naruto had told him a long time ago? It was in the Valley of the End, he remembered, Naruto was on the one side of the waterfall while he was on the other. Sasuke was deep in his darkened thoughts, and Naruto had been spewing something about friends and bonds, along with something about chasing after him and dragging him back home.

And now Sasuke was doing the chasing, how ironic.

Naruto seemed to have noticed the somewhat affectionate squeeze Sasuke couldn't help but give, since he shifted and mumbled something incoherent. Other than that, Uzumaki Naruto stayed completely out of it as he was carried inside the room and deposited on the bed.

The change in both temperature and mattress could have done it. Or perhaps it was Sasuke who was in mid-task of pulling the covers over Naruto that disturbed his sleep. Not even a minute passed, after been laid on the bed, before his eyes -now Prussian blue in the darkness- snapped open and fixed upon glowing red.

"Oh, hell…" And just like any normal human being, Naruto was a complete mental mess after waking up with just two hours of sleep.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, but made no move to explain as Naruto sat up drowsily.

Besides it wasn't as if he could explain anything at the moment anyway. "What now?" Naruto yawned. _What now?_ Tch. That almost sounded like when an adult scolded a child for letting the family's dog out without permission, exasperated and dull, not in the least surprised.

Dazedly, the previously-sleeping teen gave a look of annoyance. "Sasuke, what is it, this time?"

Biting his tongue, Sasuke willed his head to form sentences, though the action made his head practically split in two. "You looked…uncomfortable. I moved you here."

Naruto snorted, well obviously, he thought. "Yeah, I get that, but why?"

Dammit, why did he have to ask questions? Why couldn't he just accept that and leave it alone?

"Because," he said, quite roughly through clenched teeth.

After a few seconds of staring, Naruto shrugged carelessly. "Whatever, I guess you'll be sleeping on the floor, then?" The blond nin shifted and laid down, pulling the covers all the way up to his chin.

_You're doing it again, you're running away..._

"Naruto." For the second time in just a few minutes, Naruto's eyes blinked open at the sudden call. He didn't sit up to give his friend his full attention, though he did tilt his head to look at him better.

"What?"

There was a pause then a sound of clearing his throat. "I'm sorry."

Uzumaki Naruto sighed and closed his eyes again. "It's fine, forget it. I didn't mean to shout at you either." He felt both anger and disappointment. Anger because he had to put up with Sasuke's escalading mood-swings and disappointment because the other was apologizing. For what? He didn't know. Maybe the molesting had something to do with it, who knows. It was starting to mess with his mind.

_**What mind? There's only empty space here. And water. **_

Naruto didn't have the strength to put up with the comment. _Fuck off! _

"I was serious though."

Naruto inwardly groaned; he just wanted to sleep. "Said that again?" he mumbled on the pillow and inhaled. It smelled like cool mint and green tea, just like Sasuke. There was a shaky hiss from the other. "Sasuke?"

"I was serious. I do like you."

Immediately all thoughts about a nice rest disintegrated in his head. With a loud curse, Naruto threw the covers off of him and sat up so quickly the bed creaked noisily, and gave him one hell of a headache.

"Look Sasu-"

"I like you."

_Not again!_ His cheeks suddenly felt warm. The words, if heard one more time, would make him rip his hair off in chunks. "What the hell is your goddamn problem? We're both guys! Sakura-chan likes you, and you're supposed to get married and revive your stupid clan, not experiment with a guy!"

Sasuke unconsciously licked his lips. "Don't care." He shook his head just in case the other didn't hear him.

Naruto hardly looked thrilled. "Well, I do. If you want to experiment and with a guy no-less than go ahead. But I'm not about to ruin our…" he said making frustrated movements with his hands, "whatever it is that we have, just because you have tension to let go of."

Huffing, Naruto moved to lie back down but was stopped by a pale hand on his shoulder.

"Whatever we have, it'll grow stronger." Naruto swallowed and looked away from those red eyes which wouldn't stop burning with… something very fiery.

_What is going _on_?!_

"I don't- swing that way," he said in dire need for a distraction. "And neither do you."

_**Stalling won't stop anything.**_

_I thought I told you to fuck off!_

_**Patience, **_the vulpine said in mock-annoyance.

"You don't have to," Sasuke threw back. "And you don't know that."

Between the emotion in those usually apathetic eyes and the hand on his shoulder that moved to trace the marks on his cheek, Naruto had not known which possessed him to say, "Fine, but if this gets freaky between us, I'll make sure we never get paired up in future missions. We'll ignore each other, and I'll blame you forever, alright?"

The only answer was a muffled hiss. Naruto's eyes widened comically at the strange sensations he felt in his neck, where the pervert was now licking him, imitating what happened a few hours ago.

Gently, Sasuke ran his tongue over the accelerating pulse right underneath his future mate's jaw, growling contently as the other tilted his head, whether subconsciously or not, to give him better access.

Warm puffs of air escaped from his slightly opened mouth as Naruto grasped the shirt on his teammate's shoulder tightly for support, or incase he needed to make an emergency get-away if things got too out of hand. It felt good, too good.

It felt right actually. The familiar nervous, stomach-flipping, the dizziness from the spinning wreck his head was becoming, and even the warmth that could only spell out '_wanted_'. It was all the opposite of the disgust he was sure it would come.

At least until he felt a strange wetness on his bottom lip.

Wow, time out! Sasuke was going a little too fast. With all the strength he could muster, he pushed fiercely the body on top of him, but the other seemed at least three times heavier. Not only that, but his arm was tightly wrapped around his waist and the other snaked around his thigh.

The wet tongue came back on his bottom lip, adding a hint of pressure that sent loud alarms in Naruto's spinning mind, and a pleasuring jolt down to his stomach.

Hesitantly, Naruto gave in to the persuading tongue and after a half-a-second, opened his lips a small space. Sasuke, greedily, took advantage of it and after a gentle suck on the same lip he had licking rigorously, connected his mouth to the other's.

_Finally_, was all he could think. At a particularly loud groan from his partner, Sasuke gave a small grin during the quickly-heating kiss; unbeknownst that more than one person was thinking the same thing.

---

It wasn't until Sasuke learned how to breathe again that he noticed the stillness. Loud yells never came from an overwhelmed Naruto, nor did his rapid breathing harmonize with his own. A slight shift and a look under him told Sasuke that his mate had long succumbed to exhaustion.

A deep yowl echoed from the base of his throat, hissing in protest at his unconscious mate. It took him quite an effort, but Sasuke pulled away and rolled next to the slumbering Naruto. For a minute he stayed in silence, right there next to his snoring teammate, wondering what the hell he was going to do now. He was still hard.

_Not good. _

Sasuke breathed out a sigh through his nose. Tonight of all nights. Just when his dobe of a mate finally was in consent to his advances, did he practically drop dead in fatigue. The incompletion made him sort of empty. Close is what they had been to becoming one and feeling satiated, but the moment was butchered in tiny pieces before it could happen. He really couldn't blame him. "Hectic" and "busy" was pretty much what Naruto had been up to the entire day.

Purring, he brought up his soiled hand to his mouth, licking his mate's essence until his hand was clean. His throbbing shaft almost made him want to wake his Naruto up so they could take the next step, but seeing that the blond was in much needed rest, he decided against it. He licked his lips in disappointment.

_It's fine, do it. The human won't recall afterwards._

That brought a sudden hiss from him, the boy's growing nails dug sharply into the bed sheets and pulled. _No. _

_It really was all about that, wasn't it? Sex. _

Sasuke could've sworn he heard laughter. Long, dark bangs moved from side to side as he shook his head to remove the maniacal noise. The empty feeling inside of him grew, accumulating and spreading around in his chest, kicking at his stomach as if to say 'move, this is my spot now'. Nausea came back like pestering flies around a banquet of trash, this time; it felt like they were there to stay until said banquet was removed. And even then, they would still be asking for more.

Sasuke shook his head again, this time more forcefully. He gave a jerk of surprise though, when a pleasant sensation crawled up his spine when he rubbed against a still sleeping Naruto.

'Do that again!' his body wheedled. 'You'll feel better'.

Kind of like therapy, huh? Sasuke smirked. Therapy was good for the soul. No argument there. His body seemed to spasm at the idea.

That's how matter won over mind. Groaning softly, Sasuke continued to rock against the limp body next to him, slowly. His hips moved in slow, harsh thrusts. Taking a few seconds in between each, he wanted to savor every moment. There wasn't any reason to rush yet.

Almost as if it wasn't even there in the first place, the cold voice disintegrated in the darkest cage in his mind.

Sweat from the previous activities lightly coated the moonlit bronze skin; golden blond spikes were ruffled, while the bangs on his forehead and temples hugged his skin stubbornly. Sasuke guessed he too was in a similar state, if not worse.

And by the gods, the image was now forever stuck in his mind, with staples on the corners and everything.

Following the calm rhythm of Naruto's resting heart; Sasuke pushed his pelvis against the other's thigh, biting his tongue to muffle the noises that his throat so carelessly created. Naruto wrinkled his forehead and tilted his head away, as if he was disapproving even in his dreams.

It didn't matter, Sasuke had his eyes closed. He continued pressing his erection against Naruto, this time with more speed. His hands had minds of their own as well, they roamed freely over the soft skin found under the shirt and left patterns of warmth as they explored Naruto's stomach. The slight dampness of sweat made the touches inconsistent and the friction would halt them every once in a while. But in the sudden frenzy to find release, Sasuke hardly cared, hell he even enjoyed it all the more.

"Naru-!" He muffled the rest of the moans by burying his face in the crook of Naruto's neck.

Falling down from the high and settling to a pleasant glide, Sasuke never once noticed Naruto tense up and even less how he made a half-flinch as Sasuke contently leaned forward and gave a lick on the corner of the tempting mouth, moving away afterwards.

_One more night. I'll wait one more night._

That had been his last thought before Sasuke left the bed and, on all fours, paced over to a corner of the room where he finally allowed sleep to take him.

Naruto, on the other hand had less sleep than an insomniac.

--

After the brawl the team got into the day before, she had expected one loud bang to echo throughout the entire hotel. Sakura was even prepared to use force (just in case) and quiet things down as always. Then, they would all be okay with each other again and awkwardly ignore what just happened.

But there was just silence. But that wasn't what Sakura's morning strange at all.

The lack of screaming, yelling, sounds of crashing or fighting didn't come close, either. What really took the cake was Naruto coming down for breakfast, give her a big smile and leaned back on the same wall she was leaning.

Sakura stared in raw surprise, Naruto had his eyes closed and was in what appeared to be in deep thought, every once in a while he would subconsciously make a face either in disbelief or in intense concentration, as if he was reviewing a technique he just recently learned. Then out of the nowhere, his cheeks colored brightly. But before Sakura could confirm, the blond shook his head and went back to thinking with his eyes closed.

Sasuke wasn't anywhere on sight. After a few good fifteen minutes of waiting, she was at the edge of her seat, not literally.

Her apathetic teammate was always punctual to any event and it just tickled her curiosity when Naruto, short-attention spanned and somewhat procrastinator, showed up by himself. No dark-haired nin either leading him or following after him. Talk about odd.

_Mou… _Sakura had known that Sasuke preferred the loudmouth's company than of others and Naruto hadn't even tried to cover that he was the Uchiha's shadow. During the first few months of the latter's return, it had been nearly impossible to see one of them without the other.

_It was probably the fight yesterday, Naruto probably became uncomfortable and left the room early. _

Lowering her eyes, Sakura guiltily kicked the satisfying feeling that was beginning to blossom in her heart, out of her system. She loved Naruto as the younger brother that she hadn't particularly wanted. She cared for him deeply, but it was for the best if he and Sasuke gave each other a little room to breathe after months of seeing each other more than they've seen their own reflections on mirrors.

Determined, she made a pact that she would try to make sure that both of her friends give each other the space they needed. Along, of course try to gain a certain someone's attention.

She gave one last guilty stare at her 'younger brother', only for her eye to twitch visibly when she came face-to-face with a dozing boy, with a bit of drool dripping out from the corner of his mouth and everything.

He had actually fallen asleep standing _up_.

_What the hell did you do Naruto?! Did you run laps around the city?_ Like Gai and Lee? Argh! No, let's not go there. She really didn't want to think about the spandex-wearing boy at all, even in her thoughts he was getting more persistent.

Still she couldn't stop the fondness from showing as Naruto began to lean to the left.

And she didn't even _bother_ hiding a giggle when he woke up with a loud 'thud'.

"What the fuck?!"

Her giggles easily evolved into loud laughs. Maybe he was more like an older brother.

--

Sasuke fisted the dark blue covers and inhaled deeply. Upon waking up -the morning after- he had curiously noted a soft texture around his upper torso he was sure wasn't there before.

In the end, his unstated interest had won over his body, which begged for a few more moments of sleep and opened his eyes to see a warm blanket covering him.

After a couple of blinks, Sasuke sat up, ignoring reason on how he ended up sleeping in the corner farthest to the bed, blaming his embarrassing sleep-walking habit, and began to process everything.

Except he couldn't…

No actions from the day before came to him, no previous thoughts were remembered, and no past conversations could be recalled.

Though his head did feel like it was used for target practice, wincing he allowed his body to fall back on the floor.

His head felt like it had been set on fire, and his brain, with no where else to go, was melting inside his skull. The painful twitching from his muscles in both arms and legs gave the sign that he was exhausted from chakra-overuse.

The soothing, fresh scent of the blanket helped immensely by dulling the pain to a light throb. But his migraine refused to go stubbornly.

For the next few minutes, the only noise heard on the hotel room was the sound of deep breathing, because before he knew it, Uchiha Sasuke was asleep again. The blue covers high enough to cover his chin.

--

_Slightly longer hair, lengthened fingernails, sharpened fangs, and, _there was a small ruffle as the covers were moved. _Reddened eyes, no Sharingan. _

With a hum, Kakashi let go of the Uchiha's upper eyelid, musing how fun it was to mess with his student, currently partaking in an afternoon cat-nap. Oh, the irony.

Chuckling, Kakashi played around further by placing a thumb over the space between Sasuke's eyebrows and pushed downwards, making it seem like the boy was frowning in his sleep.

_Fun, fun, fun. _If he had any experience as a medic-nin, plastic surgery and face recovery would've been a great job for him. And with all the enthusiasm he had, why not? His eye crinkled into a happy arc as he maneuvered his student's expression again, this time into a smile.

Kakashi let out a low whistle. _If you think you had fans before, you should try smiling. The population would decrease with so much people in love with the same person._

And wait… there was a soft thrumming coming from his pupil. Kakashi leaned in further to catch the almost inaudible sounds. All traces of mirth left as he solemnly patted the soft ebon hair. Sasuke, his composed and cold student, was purring in his sleep.

_Apparently you also attracted the attention of a monster. _He sadly scrutinized the changed Uchiha. This wasn't Sasuke at all, at least not anymore.

_Where are you now, Sasuke? _

Quick reports to Tsunade were in order, after of course, going over to look for his students. Who knew how long they had being waiting there for him.

--

"What do you mean, Sasuke-kun is sick? He was fine last night."

Kakashi peered at the worried pink-haired nonchalantly and waved a dismissing hand.

"He caught something last night." _Definitely_, Kakashi nearly broke in happy giggles when Naruto, standing a few feet away, blushed faintly.

Sakura wasn't exactly convinced; the jounin had to admit she was trained well. "You expect us to believe he caught something from the bandits from last night?" She crossed her arms in disbelief. "We're not children anymore. You can stop giving us excuses."

"I'm not. You believe me, right Naruto?" Oh, it was so _damn_ fun messing with his students.

_Besides, better do it now before they become jounin and hardly need me there to help them._

Naruto, as Kakashi had expected, chocked with his own saliva and nodded wordlessly much to the girl's displeasure.

"Traitor," she whispered, but sighed in reluctance. "Fine, I'll go over and check on him."

"No need, I already did that for you. We'll go back to Konoha today, the mission has been completed after all."

"But what about Sasuke-kun?"

The mischievous jounin smiled and patted the fluffy rose-colored hair.

"Naruto will carry him."

"WHAT?!"

All the tourists around them, who were listening in to the soap-opera-esque conversation, grimaced at the loud exclamation, some even stuck a finger in their now-turned deaf ears.

Team Seven had seen this regularly, thus the annoying tourists were ignored without difficulty.

"Why can't you carry him, Kakashi?"

The knowing look on the teacher shut all protests from the chunnin into a tight lock.

---

The trip back to Konoha was -thankfully- uneventful for the team.

Though, Naruto could have better. Much better. After a quick breakfast and apologies to the inn-keeper for the short stay, the following –say eight hours or so were spent with Naruto carrying a totally out-cold Sasuke on his back. Sakura actually offered to give him a break and carry Sasuke, but Naruto denied the help. No matter how absurdly unfeminine-macho-strong she was, it would still be a hit below-the-belt for a guy to be carried by a girl. Embarrassedly, Naruto could also picture how _wrong_ it would look with Sasuke hunched over Sakura. Hell, maybe that's why she wanted to carry him, so she could molest him.

No thank you. He might be angry _slash_ confused _slash_ frustrated with Sasuke, but that was still no reason to let him suffer while he was unconscious. There was still some part in his mind that told him that Sakura wouldn't really molest Sasuke, though it was squashed by the thought '_she's a girl, girls have needy needs. It's the law,' _and it quickly splattered in a gross-like way.

Great, he was rambling in his mind. Naruto wondered if it was possible for someone to annoy themselves with stupid thoughts.

"_Naruto_."

Oh, _freaking_ hell.

Did Sasuke just moan in his sleep? _His_ name? Did that mean that he was dreaming about doing unspeakable Icha-Icha-esque things to him? Naruto felt himself warm up. Fucking Sasuke, he was taking this out of proportions. Sure, Naruto had enjoyed last night immensely (who knew how different it felt when another person did _that_?) but that didn't mean that he had stomach-churning, hot, man-feelings for Sasuke did he?

He shifted Sasuke further up in his back, his hold was slipping and Sasuke was taking liberty to use his shoulder as a pillow.

"We need to pick up the pace, the sun will set in about," Kakashi gave a side-glance at the reddening sun. "Two. We have two hours."

Naruto pursed his lips in an attempt to disarm the bubbling frustration that threatened to stab him inwardly. There wasn't a twitch, shift or a movement from the Uchiha as Naruto 'accidently' bumped him against a nearby boulder.

Sakura, on the other hand, knew better. She threw him a glare that just seemed to say, '_don't take your anger out on him'._

Naruto gave her a grin. '_I was just resting; the boulder was in the way'. _

The Kunoichi blew an impatient sigh but left it alone. That's why almost every Shinobi team had a girl in it, the level of maturity and stupidity needed to work together in order to reach a certain balance.

"Kakashi-sensei, I thought you said we were stopping for the night."

The man walking ahead of them didn't look back, though he did turn a page of his book. "I changed my mind."

"Yeah, well... _that_ sounds familiar. Inconsistency has always been a man's prerogative."

"No need to be bitter, Sakura," Kakashi paused for a moment to turn another page and then finished, "At least men aren't picky." He began to giggle to himself at something he read, while the students watched with mock-solemnity and sadness.

"Especially when they are in need of a lay. Or wear green spandex."

Sakura cracked her knuckles, though Naruto found her icy stare way more frightening. He quickly looked around for a place to take cover.

_If I have to, I'll use Sasuke as a meat-shield. _

The rest of the trip was done in silence, just a bit of concern over the rumbling storm far behind them.

Out of precaution, Kakashi had placed a blanket over the hunched form of the resting Uchiha. At the really peeved pout in Naruto's face, the scarecrow had smiled and said, "It's just so he doesn't grow any sicker."

It sounded like a load of bullshit to the blond.

_**But he's persistent... **_Kyuubi rumbled from his cage. _**Isn't he?**_

For once, Naruto had to agree with his personal parasite.

Sasuke wasn't sick, Naruto knew that. Though that would explain why the other had been acting so strange the last couple of days.

But that still didn't stop Naruto from wanting to kill his teacher. The team, particularly Naruto, had caused a lot of stares and whispers as soon as they placed a foot inside the village.

And with much effort, along with the fact that his hands were occupied, Naruto ignored the whispers and strange looks, keeping himself from snapping at anyone.

So one could imagine the relief and joy when he caught sight of the Uchiha Compound. Both Kakashi and Sakura-chan had already left to their own houses. Bizarrely, the copy nin volunteered to hand over the scroll to Tsunade, and left quite hurried if he might add.

"Questions later, right now, let's get this pervert home. My arms already feel like jelly."

_**Wouldn't you be one too?**_

Naruto groaned, obviously that's exactly what he needed. He quickly passed all the empty houses in the large Uchiha Compound, making sure his gaze never left the ground before him.

_I was wondering where you had gone off to. And what do you mean with 'be one too'?_

The only habitable house quickly presented to himself. "Pardon my intrusion," he mumbled before stepping inside and awkwardly juggled Sasuke on his back while taking off his shoes.

He still had to some respect for the dead after all.

_**Such sarcasm. I meant you. Pervert. **_

The soft padding sounds of his bare feet on the wooden floors sounded quite freaky on the lonely house, souring his mood even more.

_I'm not! It's just that-_

_**It's just that you were awake while the boy took care of his hard predicament. **_

_What did you want me to do back then?_ Naruto was sort of glad the monster couldn't see him blush._ He did it for me. Call it 'making it even'._

But he could feel the full-toothed smile. _**I call it perversion, voyeurism, coaxing the nerves with seductive temptation. And perversion, of course. **_

_You said perversion twice._

The fox didn't appear to have heard him. **…**_**Fun.**_ _**I left that out from the list.**_

Naruto shook those thoughts out, and continued up to Sasuke's room. He already knew the way; up the stairs, third door to the left.

Pondering was something he had done mostly on Sasuke's childhood bedroom while the other was still a missing nin. It didn't matter the subject, he always did his thinking in there.

Naruto sighed. When instead of dropping off his comrade like a child, he could've gone off to train or enjoy a bowl of ramen. The entire day had been pretty much a waste.

That was why, without a second thought, the blond dropped a sleeping Sasuke- quite unceremoniously- on the bed, and turned on his heels to get out and enjoy what was left of the day.

_**He looks cold.**_

_What?_ Now that made him snap out of it, Naruto blinked and tilted his head to look over his shoulder at the occupied bed.

Sasuke was indeed shivering soundlessly; at the sight, Naruto couldn't help but soften his stare.

"Heh, you're so sensitive, Sasuke-teme."

This time with a grin, Naruto approached the bed and wrapped the blanket, which Sasuke had landed on, around his torso like a protecting cocoon.

He left in better spirits after that.

---

_It has started. No one can stop me. Break now, boy. I will tell you what to do._

Sasuke, after a horribly long rest, shifted inside the cocoon-like blanket his teammate had placed him in. After a few seconds of trying to peel off the stubborn blanket, an angry yowl was the only warning before it was ripped into strips by long nails.

Threatening growls continued even after jumping out of the window, he landed on the roof of the neighboring house.

The light had long lost the battle to the darkness, yet the moon had not reached its highest point, which meant he had plenty of time.

He would claim his mate all the way, no stopping this time.

Arriving at the boy's roof, disappointment didn't even _compare_ to what he felt upon finding that his mate had gone out and had yet to return.

No matter, he had plenty of time. He'll wait inside until the moment came. If he could, he would've snorted at the thought; down he jumped until he landed nimbly on the balcony's floor.

His mate's scent was intoxicating, barely stepping a few feet inside and he was already drunk from it.

He allowed his eyes to roam freely though he made no move to do the same. Foxes are territorial as well, and hell would freeze over before he screwed up again by leaving his scent all over his mate's personal stuff.

Except for one thing.

Eyes of the color of fresh blood planted on a small, furry figure on the bed. Sasuke quickly closed the distance in mild irritation, slowly raising a pale hand and resting it on the soft black fur.

Miffed at the sight of the beetle-black eyes staring blankly -but cutely- at Sasuke, the latter picked it up for better inspection.

Then without a second thought, threw the cat-plushie out the open balcony window.

He snorted. _What a joke._

Seeing that it was no use waiting for his mate, he came to the idea that it would be better if he surprised him by waiting outside instead. That way, he would be able to see when his mate was coming back home.

Padding over to the balcony, he pounced first over the railing then on the roof, landing comfortably on his hands and feet. He had a very clear view of half of the village, and he could easily see some of the famous landmarks such as the Hokage Mountain and tower, as well as the Academy.

The outside air felt odd inside his nostrils after becoming accustomed to his mate's scent; it made him want to sneeze.

Before he could though, a sudden movement caught the corner of his eye. Instincts running, Sasuke jumped down from the empty apartment building and followed the speeding figure down the street. Only a small whiff of the person's scent was enough, this was the same male who _attacked_ his fox.

Adrenaline pumped inside him, with just a bit of extra strength, Sasuke lurched and tackled the other male down roughly, the latter letting out a surprised, _ooff!_

Sasuke didn't waste a second. Immediately swiping at the other's back with so much strength, the long-haired male could only wither, as if burned, under him.

The Uchiha yowled furiously, letting the other know that he was trespassing. However, the other probably already had the idea. Blood had already soaked up the pristine-white yukata, stopping shortly at the lower back. Another swipe, this time charged with chakra sent the guy flying, crashing against a nearby building.

Dust somewhat disturbed his vision, and Sasuke's opponent seemed to have realized he was in serious trouble, because the Uchiha could sense the rapid heartbeat and pumping of chakra.

_No matter._

"Hakke Kusho." The soft words were muttered from the opponent and before Sasuke knew it, he was sent back a few feet by a chakra barrier.

He hissed, so the other one was willing to _fight_.

Hurt, but not to the point where he couldn't battle any more, Sasuke shakily got into position, purring in approval at his quickly-healing injuries.

The other male seemed horribly surprised. He too was in a fighting stance, and would've looked incredibly strong if it weren't for the weak trembling. Blood was accumulating in a tiny puddle just under him.

"Uchiha? What are you doing?"

Smirking, Sasuke could tell the other was becoming exhausted, the last attack probably soaked up too much chakra.

"What has gotten to you, Uchiha?" the long-haired male drawled impatiently, hoping there was some sort of recollection in those furiously glowing red eyes.

But the background feedback could no longer allow Sasuke to understand human speech.

_End this._

A deep growl was the only warning before Sasuke, now completely healed, dropped on all fours and ran at full speed towards the other guy.

Horrified and confused, it took less than a second to react at the charge before the white-eyed male extended his arms and whirled, looking like a total white blur.

"Hakke Hasangeki."

The attack was expected by Sasuke. He evaded the short-ranged jutsu, knowing full well the other couldn't keep it too long. It was just a matter of time before he collapsed.

And just before Neji blacked out for both exhaustion and the after-attack, he wittily committed to memory how Uchiha Sasuke's monster-like chakra, grew a forked tail.

* * *

Random stuff.

**Is it just me or has my writing style changed?** Because disappointment doesn't even compare to what I feel about this chapter.

**Anyways, I guess I own all of you an apology for not updating sooner**. Does anyone even remember this story? Anyone at all?

**Before anyone asks, no, our bishies didn't go all the way. **Maybe they will later on…

Questions:

**Okay so, does Sasuke have a demon inside of him? **

Yes.

**Are they joined? **

Not completely, no. Though the demon has most authority over Sasuke at night, which is why Sasuke has amnesia problems during the day. Things will make sense eventually.

**What happened to the original demon that bit him in the beginning of the story?**

It'll be seen again soon. This chapter was already 23 pages; I didn't want to add more.

**Will Sasuke become a real cat?**

Err… No. That would be pretty strange, wouldn't it?

**Is Sasuke aware of the demon? **

Sort of. He knows there's a new presence within him. But with the past experiences with Orochimaru and Itachi mind-raping him, it's not like he notices these things anymore.

**Thanks to:**

**-****Tenshi-Of-Hell-**

For giving me a mental picture of Sasuke with longer hair. I actually went out to look for one. This here. He looks like Itachi. It makes me swoon.

**Angel Fantasy**- Yes, it is safe to register here, as long as you never give away your password or any other type of information like UserId. Once you register, it is optional to disable or enable your e-mail and location, so that's a great feature as well. Yes, it is also possible for someone to hack into your account, but as long as you don't reveal any information and change your password every once in a while, you'll be fine. If you suspect that someone is messing with you, or you have received any ugly e-mails, private messages, or offend you in any way, don't hesitate to contact these websites: or . Although anybody can be a harsh critic, there is no reason why they should insult you.

Clear…


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